SMART payment plan deception ends in CFPB settlement

The CFPB has issued a consent order against SMART Payment Plan, LLC (Austin, Texas), after finding that the company's disclosures of its loan accelerator program were misleading and in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act's prohibition against deceptive acts or practices. SMART operates a loan payment accelerator program for auto loans called the SMART Plan that deducts payments from consumers’ bank accounts every two weeks and then forwards these payments every month to the consumers’ lenders. The consent order imposes a judgment against SMART requiring it to pay $7,500,000 in consumer redress and requirements to prevent future violations.

SMART provided consumers individualized “benefits summaries” that purported to state a specific amount of interest savings or other money savings consumers would get by enrolling in the SMART Plan, but SMART’s fees would ordinarily exceed the savings. SMART’s disclosures thus created the misleading impression that consumers would save money using its product.

The ordered consumer redress has been suspended upon SMART's payment of $1,500,000 by December 31, and a $1 civil money penalty to the Bureau (based on SMART'S inability to pay more based on sworn financial statements.

For additional information and a link to the Bureau's consent order, see "SMART Payment Plan LLC settles with Bureau over misleading statements" in the BankersOnline Penalty pages.