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Edited by Hannah Locklear

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Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Do you owe Avant money? Don't stress; you've got options.

Summary: If you've fallen behind on your payments with Avant, you have options. SoloSuit's guide can help you know which option is best for you.

Avant is an online lending platform that provides access to credit through a quick and easy application process and enables loans to be managed online conveniently.

The loan servicer was founded in 2012 to lower borrowing costs and barriers for everyday people by using data to streamline the online borrowing process.

Avant offers the option of checking your interest rate online without affecting your credit score, as well as quick funding, often as soon as the next business day. The loan and payment management application is available on a mobile device.

The company has low credit score requirements, so even those with mediocre credit may apply and be accepted. However, Avant's loan interest rates are higher than the interest rates of many other personal loan lenders, and the lender also charges administrative and late fees that other lenders do not. These practices are often seen as predatory, making it difficult for those with credit struggles to ever catch up on past due accounts with Avant.

What happens if you miss a payment on your Avant loan?

There are differences between online lenders, banks, and credit cards. If you have a loan and have fallen behind on payments, keep in mind that Avant is unique in four critical areas compared to its online competitors:

A Credit Bureau Report May Result From Nonpayment for Four Months

A delinquent account can be charged off after only 120 days of missed payments. Consequently, it can report your account as a loss for the few months of missed payments, which can negatively impact your credit.

A charge-off is the most serious mark that you can get on your credit report because it indicates the highest level of delinquency for an account. Whenever you default on a payment, it's crucial to find a solution right away.

Avant is unlikely to litigate or sell your debt

Online lenders are reluctant to sue borrowers in certain circumstances, fearing that their reputations will be damaged. Rather than doing this, they sell delinquent accounts to debt buyers. However, Avant is not known to sell their debts to third parties and will continue working to collect the debt in-house.

Avant may accept a settlement but keep the documented confirmation

The settlements Avant offers to clients are generally satisfactory, but clients should be careful to document their agreements. Avant's collection department is skilled in making it sound like they are ready to make a deal, but it is best not to believe anything until you have it in writing.

Through a debt management program (DMP), Avant may be able to lower your interest rate. According to research, Avant is more likely to offer interest rate concessions to customers who enroll in a debt management plan when compared to other online lenders.

Avant complaints & reviews

According to its website, Avant has a customer satisfaction rate of 95%. However, its Better Business Bureau profile averages just one and a half stars out of five from 93 reviews, with 195 BBB complaints and an A-rating.

Additionally, Avant recently settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for engaging in deceptive and unfair loan servicing practices, including unauthorized charges to consumers' accounts and forcing them to consent to automatic payments. Avant was found liable and fined $3.85 million, which was returned to customers harmed by Avant's unlawful practices.

What payment options do I have with Avant?

If you have difficulty repaying your loan, other options may be available. Reach out to the lender before falling behind on your payments to see if a hardship plan can be arranged to lower your payments temporarily.

Before approaching the negotiation of a payment plan, ensure that it fits your budget and that you're confident you'll be able to make all of the payments. If you aren't, it may be the time to consider negotiating a lower loan balance than you owe.

Often, it will be necessary for you to come up with some cash to reach an agreement. Can you accumulate funds through monthly cash flow and other sources to supplement your current balance? In other words, could you find the money if they theoretically accepted a settlement of half of what you owe? These are important questions to consider if you're looking into settling a debt with Avant.

You can prevent Avant default payments

You can do a few things to avoid defaulting on an Avant payment in the future. One of those things is budgeting effectively. A simple budgeting tip is to track each transaction to understand how much of your monthly budget is spent on things like entertainment or dining out instead of monthly bills.

Create credit monitoring alerts to notify you when your account is in danger so you don't end up in a financial emergency due to made-in-the-mistake purchases.

If you are contacted by Avant and feel there may be errors in their reporting, send a Debt Validation Letter from SoloSuit. Once Avant receives the letter, they have thirty days to respond with all pertinent information about the debt. Make sure there are no mistakes in the account balance, the amount paid, or other errors that could render the debt invalid.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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