Home → Lenders → Populus Financial Group
formerly ACE Cash Express
Share of complaints that ended with money back
0.38%
Of the 783 complaints recorded against Populus Financial Group in the CFPB database, 3 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.
The CFPB found ACE Cash Express used illegal debt-collection tactics — including harassment and false threats of suits or criminal prosecution — to pressure overdue payday borrowers into taking out new, unaffordable loans.
Read the CFPB source →Issue categories as selected by borrowers on the CFPB complaint form.
| Issue | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Charged fees or interest I didn't expect | 193 | 24.6% |
| Struggling to pay your loan | 133 | 17.0% |
| Can't contact lender | 93 | 11.9% |
| Received a loan you didn't apply for | 72 | 9.2% |
| Problem with the payoff process at the end of the loan | 39 | 5.0% |
| Payment to acct not credited | 38 | 4.9% |
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. | 748 | 95.5% |
| Closed Closed with no category recorded. | 30 | 3.8% |
| Closed with monetary relief Money was returned. | 3 | 0.4% |
| Closed with non-monetary relief A non-cash fix (e.g. a correction or a stopped practice). | 1 | 0.1% |
| In progress Not yet resolved at the time of this snapshot. | 1 | 0.1% |
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 |
|---|---|
| Texas | 265 |
| California | 109 |
| Ohio | 51 |
| Florida | 47 |
| Missouri | 27 |
| Louisiana | 22 |
| Colorado | 21 |
| Tennessee | 19 |
Verbatim from complaints filed against Populus Financial Group 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.
I am filing a complaint regarding a payment I made to ACE Cash Express that has not been properly applied to my account. On the XXXX, I called to make a payment on my loan before the due date. The payment was successfully processed, and the funds were deducted from my bank account. However, the payment has not been applied to my loan…Loan payment wasn't credited to your account · complaint filed 2026-04-22
They called me XXXX times in XXXX day I want to report them for unlawful harassment before debt collections was even made they call me at work and they call my job its law to not call more than 7 times in 7 days so I want to report for unlawful harassmentProblem when making payments · complaint filed 2026-04-13
I turned over this Pay Day Loan to my credit counseling program. However, I spoke to several people including Supervisors, and they promise that this loan had been revoked and there would be no withdrawal from my banking account. Ace Express had my account information debit card and checking account information. Ace Express generated an…Money was taken from your bank account on the wrong day or for the wrong amount · complaint filed 2026-04-01
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 →
We take no payment from lenders, do not accept their advertising, and refer no one to a loan. Our revenue comes from credit union referrals, data licensing and reader support — never from a high-cost lender. If you find an error here, tell us and we will correct it and say that we did. How we work →