Published 29th Jul, 2023

By Tola Owoyele

Nancy Haruna (not real name), an Adamawa State-based civil servant, has detailed how EasyCash, an online money lending company, exploited her while attempting to take a loan.

Haruna told FIJ that the incident happened on July 2.

“After filling all necessary information on EasyCash’s page, I had not even entered the amount I was hoping to borrow from them when I suddenly received an N18,000 credit alert from them,” Haruna said.

“After the money was sent to me, I realised that the amount I was to repay was N26,000.

“Because I was in urgent need of cash then, I ignored the fact that they had forced the N18,000 loan on me even before I requested for it. My initial thought was that the repayment tenure would be for a month, but nine days later, I suddenly received a text message from them that the lone was due for repayment.

“Despite not stating the repayment date on their platform, they insisted that the loan I took had a seven-day repayment tenure.”

To avoid defamation, Haruna said she quickly gathered N19,000 from friends and family members and made a part repayment to EasyCash on July 11.

“When I made the N19,000 part repayment to them, I discovered that they had already started charging me a daily N1,000 late repayment fee after the seven day tenure expired,” said Haruna.

transaction receipt of loan repayment to EasyCash

Screenshot showing EasyCash's Claim That it Is Still Being Owed N21,706 by Haruna — Screenshot showing EasyCash’s Claim That it Is Still Being Owed N21,706 by Haruna

“This made me seek more money from the people around me, and I made sure I paid them off. After clearing the additional outstanding repayment of N11,000 they dubiously claimed I was still owing, EasyCash agents shockingly came back to say I was still owing another N21,706.

“This means EasyCash and its agents are fraudulently expecting me to make a total repayment of N51,706 on an N18,000 loan I was forcefully given within three weeks.

“Since then, EasyCash agents have been calling and sending me several threat messages to make sure I still pay the N21,706. One of their managers, who simply called himself Mr. Andrew, also insisted that I pay the money.

“The height of it all was when one of them called my mother and lied that I had collected N5 million from them and would not pay back. My mother immediately developed high blood pressure as a result of that particular incident.

“Please help me, EasyCash is trying to force me to pay a ridiculous amount on a loan I was forcefully sent.”

FIJ made several phone calls to Andrew, the EasyCash manager involved in the matter on Friday morning for comments, but they were not answered. A text message was also sent, but it had not been responded to at press time.

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