By DON DARE
6 On Your Side Reporter
PIGEON FORGE (WATE) - It's easier than ever to go online and get a loan, but one local woman's experience showed a darker side to the quick loan industry.
Kelly Hall considered herself pretty fortunate after a customer representative at Smart Bank in Pigeon Forge noticed some unusual activity on her bank account several days ago.
"She said on the same day they took out the 13 cents in increments of 6, 4, and 3 cents," said Hall. "They were concerned someone was messing with my account and wanted me to be aware of it."
Hall said neither she nor her husband had applied for a loan online. She was told the company's name was Cash Loan Today. Hall called the company from a phone number on her statement and spoke with a customer service representative.
"She advised me that I had been approved for an $800 loan," said Hall. "When I asked how they got my information she wasn't able to tell me how they got this information to my bank."
"We were fortunate we saw it, happened to be doing some work on the account. We noticed it," said Billy Carroll, President of Smart Bank.
He said when the service representative noticed the transactions, she contacted Hall immediately.
"Sometimes those are legitimate transactions, but in this case they weren't," said Carroll. "In this case, they were unusual. That's why our financial service rep asked."
Hall is grateful the bank called.
"I have an IRS check that is going to be deposited into that account and it could be a large sum of money taken out without me knowing about it," said Hall.
Hoping to get information from the loan company, 6 On Your Side called the toll free number found on Kelly's statement, but they told us even their supervisor couldn't answer our questions. When we checked the company's website - no luck. It's under construction.
What we did find were a number of complaints lodged against the company online.
One complaint said: "Went into my account and took $30 out without my permission. How did they get access to my account?"
"They told me once that they deposited the $800, they were going to take out the $30," said Hall.
There are steps consumers can take to protect bank accounts.
"If you're on online banking, log into your account, look through your transaction history on a regular basis. If you're getting paper statements, open that statement every month and look through every transaction to make sure there is nothing unusual there," said Carroll.
From now on, Hall said she'll frequently check her account.
"Keep a close eye on it because you never know who is pulling money in and out of that account," said Hall.
