Home → Lenders → Advance America
Largest US storefront chain
Share of complaints that ended with money back
2.06%
Of the 538 complaints recorded against Advance America in the CFPB database, 11 were closed with monetary relief. Read this as one figure from a public dataset, not a grade: it is not adjusted for how many customers or loans a company has, its product mix, complaint severity, or how each firm classifies its responses — so it should not be read as this lender treating people better or worse than another.
1 government action we have matched to this company, by regulator and year. Each links to its primary source.
Advance America entered a consent order with California’s financial regulator (the DFPI, then DBO) concerning its consumer lending practices in California, following an earlier 2009 settlement.
Read the California DFPI source →Issue categories as selected by borrowers on the CFPB complaint form.
| Issue | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Struggling to pay your loan | 96 | 17.8% |
| Charged fees or interest you didn't expect | 91 | 16.9% |
| Received a loan you didn't apply for | 45 | 8.4% |
| Problem with the payoff process at the end of the loan | 36 | 6.7% |
| Can't stop charges to bank account | 32 | 5.9% |
| Can't contact lender | 30 | 5.6% |
The outcome the CFPB recorded for each complaint after the company responded.
| Outcome | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with explanation The company stated its position; nothing changed for the borrower. | 519 | 96.5% |
| Closed with monetary relief Money was returned. | 11 | 2.0% |
| Closed with non-monetary relief A non-cash fix (e.g. a correction or a stopped practice). | 4 | 0.7% |
| In progress Not yet resolved at the time of this snapshot. | 3 | 0.6% |
| Untimely response The company did not respond within the CFPB window. | 1 | 0.2% |
You can withdraw permission for any company to debit your account, and instruct your bank to block the payment. Neither step needs the lender’s agreement, and neither depends on whether you still owe the money.
Top states by complaint volume. Each links to that state’s law page.
| State | Complaints |
|---|---|
| California | 74 |
| Texas | 65 |
| Florida | 57 |
| Ohio | 44 |
| South Carolina | 33 |
| Alabama | 24 |
| Tennessee | 24 |
| Indiana | 21 |
Verbatim from complaints filed against Advance America in the CFPB database. XX and XXXX are the Bureau’s own redactions of personal details. These are allegations by borrowers, published by the CFPB — not findings, and not necessarily accepted by the company.
On XX/XX/2026, my longtime employer unexpectedly passed away, causing significant financial hardship and disruption to my income stability. Since that time, I have been experiencing financial difficulties and have been unable to afford automatic payments being withdrawn every XXXX weeks. I contacted Advance America by telephone to…Struggling to pay your loan · complaint filed 2026-05-21
I am filing this complaint regarding an installment loan issued by Advance America and a misdirected ACH deposit that was sent to the wrong bank account. After being approved for a loan, the funds were deposited into a bank account that was not mine due to an account number error. I immediately contacted Advance America as soon as I…Getting the loan · complaint filed 2026-05-20
The company had been hacked and now Im receiving calls from someone who had my social security number and information and Im worried they may use my informationProblem with fraud alerts or security freezes · complaint filed 2026-05-04
More complaints does not mean worse. A company serving millions of borrowers will collect more complaints than one serving thousands, whatever the quality of either. That is why the headline figure is a rate — the share of complaints that end with money back — not a count. The rate already adjusts for how many people complained.
A complaint is also an allegation, not a finding. The CFPB does not verify what borrowers write, and neither do we.
The complaint counts, resolution outcomes, issue and state breakdowns on this page come straight from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (a public federal dataset of 15,188,499 complaints filed since 2011; retrieved 3 August 2026) and refresh from that API — no editorial judgement is applied to those numbers. The regulatory-action, rent-a-bank and SEC-filing sections, the lender’s classification and description, and the company-name matching are researched and reviewed by hand, and dated where shown.
Complaints are published after the company responds or after 15 days, whichever comes first. The CFPB does not verify borrowers’ accounts, and a complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing. The database is not a statistical sample of all customer experience. Search the full database →
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