Consumer Alert
Aqua Finance misled people about financing for home water treatment systems
At some point, most of us will rely on financing to buy the things we need or want. But what happens when financing terms aren’t clear? Or you’re told to expect a monthly payment amount, but end up paying more? That’s not only illegal, but it costs you money and can hurt your credit.
The FTC says that’s what happened to customers of Aqua Finance, Inc. (“AFI”), a finance company offering loans for people to buy home water treatment systems through a network of door-to-door dealers. The lawsuit says the company’s dealers frequently misled people about AFI’s financing terms, provided paperwork that didn’t clearly explain the financing, targeted older adults and Spanish speakers, and pressured people to sign financing documents they didn’t understand. This led to people paying more than they could afford and caused some to miss payments. And, the FTC says, AFI shared account details with credit bureaus, reporting missed payments and inaccurate information about people’s loans. Reporting negative information hurts people’s credit.
Here's advice for anyone looking to finance a purchase:
- Resist the pressure to act immediately. If someone pressures you to sign documents without clearly explaining the terms, it’s a red flag. Before signing, take your time and talk to someone you trust.
- Ask questions and get details in writing. What are the terms of the financing? How much interest will I pay? What is the annual percentage rate — and will it ever go up? How long will a loan take to pay off? Get specific details of the financing in writing.
- Check your credit report before you finance. Your credit rating plays a big role in how much you’ll pay to borrow money. Mistakes reported on your credit report could lower your credit rating.
If you've experienced aggressive sales tactics or been misled on financing terms, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Image
Aqua finance and the culligan man that signed out names and lied to us should issue people their money back
I am a victim of this fraud also. What can I do about it?
I am a victim of Aqua. When will we get letters or more information about what we need to do next.
I also was scammed by Aqua Finance, the sales guy wouldn’t leave my house for hours, til we signed, promised it would be low affordable payments, now it’s been like 3 years and we still owe 3000.. it never goes down…
This company was reporting falsely on my and my husbands credit. They refused to provide a payoff statement on their "portal". They reported a payoff balance that was $500 more to the home equity loan that we were getting than what we actually owed. This company is very shady and makes things more difficult so people will just pay and get it over with. They also would not allow managers to speak to callers when the callers provided facts.
We were also Scammed by Aqua finance. None of our paperwork states an interest rate. We just started looking into things because we’ve paid about $7500 over the last 5 years for our system and they’re saying we still owe $5000, plus we were never told about all the extra money we’d be payi g to replace filters, tanks and other upkeep to the system. We can not afford this anymore!!! We feel robbed!!!
The salesman who came to my door lied about the interest rate 95% of my payment goes to interest which is accrued daily. My 10 year loan will take 25 to payoff if even that.
Rip off we want the system removed
I was scammed. Paid a year on a $7,000 product and bill never changed. The system would flush multiple times a night and it charged my water bill three times the normal amount as if I was filling a pool monthly. Within the first three months the reverse osmosis sustem blew and wanted to charge to fix the product within the first year! I need to be apart of this lawsuit
We got scammed by them too. We have been trying to figure out how to get out of this loan. We pay $104 a month and still owe $5000 on a $8000 loan. We have had the loan for almost 7 years. What can we do?
I have paid over five thousand dollars toward this equipment. They charge interest and fees and after seven years of paying they say I still owe $4600 on the original $5600. How do we sign up for this?
I was also scammed by Aqua Finance. How do we sign up?
I’m having trouble receiving any responses about my account with AFI. Would I have any luck getting in touch with a law firm because I doubt 20million is going to cover all of the fraudulent amounts this company is taking from people.
I’m in the same situation with Aqua, but only mine is for a pool and landscaping at my home that I had built 5 years ago. We had the pool installed afterwards my husband and I did not know anything about financing and we’re totally scammed by these people we’ve been paying on this pool $1181 For the last five years, my total for the entire backyard landscaping and pool was about 107,000 and after five years only $4000 has been deducted from the principal, and every time I make a payment of $1181.00 they take $999.53 For interest so only $181.47 goes towards the principal. Not only that, but we were not told that they put a lien on our house to do this loan so for the last five years, I have wasted tons of time and money spent on appraisals to try to get my house refinanced and nobody will touch it because I have a so called 2nd mortgage basically on my house, this is crazy. These people should’ve told us this upfront in layman terms so we understood what we were getting ourselves into. If I just make the regular payments of $1181.00 every month they say I’ll have it paid off for in 16 years my total that I’m gonna be paying though is $231,361 Over double what I took out for the loan. Do I qualify for part of this settlement, or a loan forgiveness??
My mother has been paying on this for close to 4 years and still owes over 6000 dollars. Plus she was paying anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars a month for the chemicals. She had a problem with it not working called them they came out and charged her over 200 dollars for repairs. This is totally insane. They are taking advantage of these elderly people and them needing clean water to drink , to cook and to take a bath in. They should be ashamed of themselves.
The same has happened to me pressured to get the whole package or nothing at all. Just spoke to Aqua Finance Rep and he said it could take 50 years to pay. I’ve been paying now for 5 years and total loan was for only $7000. I am not sending them another dime. The balance never goes down.
How do we get rid of this system? It doesn’t work well. We just want it gone and want to stop paying on it. Weve been paying $100 every month for almost 3 years and somehow still owe $7k