Same day loan company holds onto man's car title despite not giving him loan

When Trevor Sherman's father died in mid-August, he had no idea how he would finance the funeral. One of his neighbours told him about a same-day loan service. He thought that God had answered his prayers after he went there and was told he had qualified for a loan.

However, after paying a processing fee and leaving the title of his car as collateral at an entity in Old Harbour, St Catherine, Sherman said he is yet to receive a dollar from the loan agency.

"I went there on August 31 and paid the processing fee of $3,000. Dem say yuh nuh need to have nothing at all fi get the loan and mi go to the extreme and give them mi car title; and all now mi nuh get it back yet or any money fi bury mi father," Sherman said.

Sherman told THE STAR that he visited the office of the same-day loan facility where he first asked for the loan several times but has not gotten any satisfactory answer.

"Mi go in to dem for the loan [a] whole lot of times. Dem say it nuh come down from somebody. The file nuh come back down and dem whole heap a rubbish deh. And when mi go deh first, dem mek mi know say less than a week mi would get through," Sherman said.

Sherman told THE STAR that it was relatives, who were living abroad, that helped him to bury his father.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach the reach the microfinancing entity proved futile.

NEEDS TO BE REGULATED

Dr Blossom O'Meally Nelson, chairman of The Jamaica Association for Micro Financing, told THE STAR that Sherman's experience is just one of the reasons the microfinancing sector needs to be regulated.

"Once you have the sector regulated, it will outline all of those things, and then you would be able to go at those people for illegal activities," Nelson said.

"Transparency is an important part of the law."

She said that for entities charging a processing fee it is very tricky, as it might anger persons if they are not qualified for the loan.

"Most of my members don't really agree with [processing fee] that, because it's like you going to spend money and you not sure if you going to get the loan. We do not think its best practice," Nelson said.

Nelson said that the chief parliamentary counsel has completed the draft of the microfinancing bill and its now to go before Parliament.