OneClickCash Closed

Santee Sioux Nation (SFS Inc.) — Scott Tucker operation · 2003–2016

OneClickCash carried the Santee Sioux Nation’s name through SFS, Inc., but it was Scott Tucker’s operation — and Tucker is serving 200 months. Its borrowers were repaid automatically as part of the $535 million the FTC and DOJ mailed out, and $68 million of uncollected charges were waived. Both distributions are closed now. If you are here looking for a claim form, there is none, and there is also nothing left to owe.

Do I still owe OneClickCash?

Collection status
Stopped January 1, 2016
Debt relief
SFS paid $2.2M and waived uncollected fees
Cash fund
Distributed and now closed. Part of the $505M (2018) and $152M (2022) FTC/DOJ refunds — automatic, no claim needed. Final deadline passed 17 August 2022.
Closed
2016

Shut down with Scott Tucker’s AMG operation. SFS, Inc. paid $2.2M and, with Red Cedar, waived $68M in uncollected charges; Tucker was convicted of racketeering in 2017 and sentenced to 16 years and 8 months.

OneClickCash at a glance

Closed
Owning tribe
Santee Sioux Nation (SFS Inc.) — Scott Tucker operation
Lending since
2003
Loan amounts
$200–$500
APR range
400–700%
Product
payday
Website
oneclickcash.com

What a OneClickCash loan cost

The mechanics were identical across Tucker’s brands, and the FTC proved them precisely. On a $500 loan, the TILA box disclosed a $150 finance charge and a $650 total — $30 per $100 borrowed.

What the schedule actually did was withdraw the interest only, every payday, applying nothing whatsoever to principal, until at least the fifth payday. Only then did $50 per payday start reducing the balance — while the finance charge kept accruing.

The court’s illustration: a contract stating that a $300 loan would cost $390 in fact cost $975.

The APR was disclosed. The deception lived in the auto-withdrawal schedule, which is why "read the APR" was never adequate protection here.

Whose brand, whose money

OneClickCash — formerly Preferred Cash Loans — operated through SFS, Inc. under the Santee Sioux Nation. Its stablemates ran under different tribes: AmeriLoan and United Cash Loans through MNE Services (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma), 500FastCash through Red Cedar Services (Modoc Tribe). AMG Services serviced them all.

The point of the arrangement was that no single tribe’s name appeared on the whole thing. The business — $3.5 billion in revenue between 2008 and mid-2013, up to 1,500 staff in Overland Park, Kansas — was run by Scott Tucker, a member of none of them.

In March 2014 the court held that American Indian tribes are subject to the FTC Act. That is the ruling that ended the structure, and it reaches far beyond this case.

What borrowers got, and why it is over

In November 2015, Red Cedar and SFS each paid $2.2 million and together waived $68 million in uncollected charges. Combined with the earlier AMG/MNE settlement — $21 million paid, $285 million waived — roughly $353 million of debt was simply wiped across the seven brands.

Then the refunds. On 27 September 2018 the FTC and DOJ mailed 1,179,803 checks totalling over $505 million. On 19 May 2022 a second round sent about 690,000 checks worth more than $152 million.

Total returned: over $535 million, covering loans taken before January 2013 across 500FastCash, Advantage Cash Services, AmeriLoan, OneClickCash, Star Cash Processing, UnitedCashLoans and USFastCash.

Nobody applied. The FTC identified borrowers from the defendants’ own records and mailed the money — which is exactly how relief should work, and almost never does.

Both distributions are closed; the 2022 checks had to be cashed by 17 August 2022. Note where the money came from: the DOJ criminal case and settlements predating 2021, not the FTC’s famous $1.3 billion judgment, which the Supreme Court vacated in AMG Capital Management v. FTC.

Frequently asked questions

Do I still owe money on a OneClickCash loan?

You should not. The FTC settlements waived roughly $353 million in assessed-but-uncollected charges across Scott Tucker’s AMG brands, OneClickCash included. If someone is collecting, demand written validation and proof of ownership, and report them to the FTC.

Can I still claim a OneClickCash refund?

No. Refunds were mailed automatically — over $505M in 2018 and $152M more in 2022 — from the defendants’ own records, with no claim form. Both distributions are closed; the final cashing deadline was 17 August 2022.

Was OneClickCash owned by the Santee Sioux Nation?

SFS, Inc. under the Santee Sioux Nation was the named entity, but the operation was run by Scott Tucker, who was not a tribal member. He was convicted of racketeering in 2017 and sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison.