Seek Capital – An Illicit and Well Organized Scam
Insufficient funds are a major threat to any business. Without sufficient funds, businesses cannot meet their financial obligations when they fall due. Additionally, a lack of funds limits business growth and expansion. Access to bank loans is a cumbersome process as banks require financial statements and assets as collateral among numerous documents. The long process and strict requirements, therefore, locks-out a high number of businesses from loans. That is where Seek Capital LLC comes in. The Seek Capital connects businesses to credit facilities including banks. According to the company’s website, Seek Capital LLC is not a loan lender, broker, or agent but refers qualified clients to lenders (https://www.seekcapital.com/). The company claims to have links with various banks and trusted partners. The company also clearly states that it does not have access to the full terms of the loan and does not control the actions of the lenders. The company is therefore a third-party player in the loan process.
Seek Capital provides various attractive features which can lure any business with cash issues. These features include a free application process, an application process taking less than 2 minutes, no collateral needed, no tax returns requested, and flexible payment options. Customers can also apply entirely over the phone through the official number ((866) 695-0279) which is displayed on the official website. The entity claims to help business owners access funding by increasing their business credit lines. In simpler terms, the company applies for extra credit on behalf of the business from different banks and creates a flexible payment plan for the business. This analysis will evaluate whether the company’s promises and claims are based on facts.
Target customers
Seek Capital creates credit options for small businesses. The company, therefore, targets businesses struggling with financing issues and cannot access credit directly from banks. One of the company’s customers clearly defined the kind of customers that the company targets. According to the customer, Seek Capital LLC targets businesses that are less than 3 years and in search of loans (https://www.yelp.com/biz/seek-capital-los-angeles). Since the businesses have existed for a relatively short period, they are expected to struggle before accessing loans from banks. The company promises to open different lines of credit for the customers which would enable them to access previously inaccessible loans. Small businesses that are therefore the primary target of the company include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and small vendors.
How Seek Capital CLAIMS to operate…?
The best way to know how the company claims to operate is to evaluate the process outlined on its official website. According to the company’s website, the credit process takes place in three simple steps. First, the customer selects their preferred type of funding. The company offers various types of funding including revolving lines of credit to Covid Government Funds. The second step is the application process which takes less than 2 minutes. Customers can apply through the company’s website or call the official telephone lines. Seek Capital claims to respond to customers’ applications in minutes. The last step involves getting a dedicated agent. Seek Capital provides a dedicated agent who will guide the customer. The process seems straightforward. The company does not outline the charges for each step but assures customers that the charges are affordable. The website also does not describe the payment terms for the loans or any other details. Various financial institutions are displayed as partners on the website including Top10.com, Consumer Advocate, Blue Vine, National Funding, and Ondeck among others (https://www.seekcapital.com/). These big names emphasize the legitimacy of the company. The company has posted reviews of various customers which are all positive. One customer has claimed that the company keeps its word. Judging the company from the details on the website, the company seems like the holy grail of small businesses. But wait, we have to dig deeper to determine whether the company keeps these promises.
How Seek Capital operates…
Seek Capital’s operations can be understood by evaluating the claims of different previous customers. The credit process begins when the customer contacts the company for business credit. According to a customer, theSeek Capital operates mainly over the phone and through emails. When the company contacts a customer or the other way around, the company passes the customer through different sales agents. The agents explain to the customer how the business idea is brilliant and the need to take the line of credit. These sales representatives aim at compelling the customer to take the loan. Now the customer can either accept or reject the loan.
According to a different customer, if the client rejects the loan process and wants to cancel the application process, the company demands that the customer should pay USD 495 which is the applicable cancellation fee (https://www.yelp.com/biz/seek-capital-los-angeles).
Let’s take the route where the customer accepts the loan application process. A customer claimed that the sales representatives take the customer through the entire process in a single call and send documents via email which the customer is supposed to sign and send back without disconnecting the phone call. The representatives make it seem like the loan application process is a matter of life and death. The extremely quick application process does not give a customer time to think hence the customer ends up signing legally abiding documents and providing personal information which can be used to open new credit cards. A customer claimed that the sales representative does not even request for the name of the business yet he claims to open a credit facility for the business (https://www.yelp.com/biz/seek-capital-los-angeles). Immediately the customer representatives acquire the required personal details and customer authorization to act as their representatives, the representative claims that they will get in touch with the customer within an unspecified time.
The next step of the process involves opening numerous credit cards with the customers’ details in numerous banks. The company promised that it will open new business lines of credit. However, the company opens new personal credit cards. The company proceeds to request credit card funding from different banks. The company sends numerous credit requests on behalf of the customer without informing them. According to a customer, the company made a total of 12 credit inquiries on behalf of the customer (https://www.lendio.com/bp/lender-profile/1093). The customer claimed that the company did not open a new business line of credit but charged the client to open new personal credit cards. The company applies for personal credit card funding from various banks without the customers’ approval or knowledge.
Once Seek Capital acquires credit funding through credit cards, the company now turns to the customer for payment. According to a customer, the company took the total amount of cash in the credit card and then charged 11 percent of the total amount as a service fee (https://www.lendio.com/bp/lender-profile/1093). The customer, therefore, owed the company 11 percent of the total credit approved and could not access the funds requested from the banks through the newly created credit cards. Another customer was charged a fee of 12 percent of the total amount that the company acquired through the credit cards (https://www.yelp.com/biz/seek-capital-los-angeles). The majority of customers felt deceived since they could have created personal credit cards without the help of the company. Additionally, they felt that the company overcharged for seeking credit card funding which the customer could have done for free.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Using the Company’s Service
The main benefit of using Seek Capital is access to personal loans. People who do not know how to request personal credit facilities through their credit cards can therefore benefit from the company’s services. Some customers claimed that the company helped them access business credit facilities. However, no customer disclosed the amount they received, terms of payment, and service charges they incurred (https://www.lendio.com/bp/lender-profile/1093). Additionally, most people can request for credit card funding hence charging them for the services is unrealistic. Personal credit card loans are therefore unhelpful to people seeking loans for their businesses.
There are numerous costs and negative impacts of using the company’s services. First, the services expose the customer to poor credit ratings. A customer complained that allowing the company to apply for credit card financing lowered his FICO score. Credit inquiries account for over 10 percent of the FICO score hence making numerous inquiries adversely affect the credit score of the customers.
Did You Know?
FICO (Fair, Isaac and Company) was founded by Bill Fair & Earl Isaac in the year 1956. The firm is based in Bozeman, Montana, and focuses on credit scoring services and data analysis. Moreover, FICO provides the firms with the FICO score, which has become a marking measure for lending in the US.
Secondly, Seek Capital charges extremely high for opening credit cards and seeking funding using them. Customers claimed that the company charges 11-12 percent of the total amount on the credit cards and threaten the customer to ensure that the customer pays them first. The charges are high bearing in mind that the customer can just walk to the nearest bank and request for assistance to finance the credit cards for free.
Thirdly, Seek Capital leaves the customer with a high amount of debt to pay. The company does not care about the interest rates paid for the loans as long as they can access the credit card finances. The company does not even disclose payment policies associated with such credit processes. A customer claimed that he was left with 29.99% interest rate payments burdened after the process https://www.lendio.com/bp/lender-profile/1093. The costs attributable to the services outweigh the benefits.
Customer services
The sales representatives are trained to lure customers into taking loans and signing legally abiding contracts without a second thought. The sales representatives of Seek Capital take turns convincing customers and promise to assist the customer throughout the process. Although the customer service agents are friendly before the application process, they become rude and threatening after the application process. The agents threaten the customer to compel them to make the exorbitant charges. The agents are also deceitful as they fail to disclose important information concerning the loan process. The agents fail to seek authorization from the customer when opening and applying for new credit cards which is unethical.
How long it takes to access the funds
Once Seek Capital has access to the necessary information, the employees work day and night to access the funds. According to a customer, the entire process took less than two weeks (https://www.consumeraffairs.com/business-loans-and-financing/seek-capital.html?#sort=recent&filter=1). The company’s employees claimed that the time taken for the funds to reflect on the users’ credit cards depended on the customer’s credit score. This is true and justified as a higher credit score would allow the company to successfully request for funding of the credit cards. Customers, therefore, expect new credit cards with unrealistic credit funds within two weeks.
Refunds and cancellation processes
TheSeek Capital does not provide the refund policy statement on its website or social media sites. The company claims that the application process is free but once the company wants to opt out of the process, the company charges a ridiculous fee of $495. The company does not provide a price list for its services and threatens customers to make them pay. None of the analyzed customers claimed to have received a refund. In short, you cannot be refunded and you have to pay the company to cancel the process (pay the company to do nothing).
References
https://www.lendio.com/bp/lender-profile/1093
https://www.yelp.com/biz/seek-capital-los-angeles
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/seekcapital.com
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/business-loans-and-financing/seek-capital.html?#sort=recent&filter=1
I have fallen victim to their crafty ways…because I had excellent credit, they were able to get over 100,000 in credit cards and charged one of my cards over 12,000 in fees and now the bank has closed the account as they were unaware of Seek Capitol being behind it, which leaves me with a big balance and no access to funds..They literally coached me what to say before the calls were made with the banks, I essentially did all of the work and they got paid A LOT putting me in debt when all I was “seeking” was a reserve backup cashflow plan in case I found myself in a bind down the road. Any legal action I can take?
I love this and this is 100% accurate. Horrible company that buys reviews on Facebook and other review sites to make themselves better.
This is my review of them!
“The people that you work with are very dishonest, they lie to you stating that this is a line of credit, promise you a certain about and then can not reach that amount. THIS IS NOT A LINE OF CREDIT. What this company does is, applies for a bunch of credit cards for you and then charges you 10%+ in fees and whatnot for them helping you out. It is not worth the effort as they will make you transfer funds around your other credit cards to “Make It Work”. The more credit cards you get, the more money you pay. They will also tell you that if they can’t reach your goals you wouldn’t have to pay for the funding that was received, this is untrue as well. Also per their contract they state that you may not harm the company. Very shady.
They have also been buying reviews on Facebook, making them even more dishonest.
However, if credit cards are what you’re looking for, then this may be the correct option for you. If you need funding to help start a business, look elsewhere.
Don’t forget your first amendment rights!
Buyer Beware. Shut them down!”