UnitedCashLoans Closed
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma (MNE Services) — Scott Tucker operation · 2003–2015
United Cash Loans ran under the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s MNE Services, alongside AmeriLoan, in Scott Tucker’s $3.5 billion operation. Its borrowers shared in $285 million of waived charges and the $535 million the government mailed back automatically. The refunds closed in August 2022, so what remains useful is narrower and still worth knowing: the charges were waived, which means nobody has a legitimate United Cash Loans balance to collect from you.
Do I still owe UnitedCashLoans?
- Collection status
- Stopped January 1, 2015
- Debt relief
- $285M waived (with Ameriloan and USFastCash)
- 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
- 2015
Shut down with Scott Tucker’s AMG operation. MNE Services paid $21M and waived $285M in uncollected charges; Tucker was convicted of racketeering in 2017.
UnitedCashLoans at a glance
Closed- Owning tribe
- Miami Tribe of Oklahoma (MNE Services) — Scott Tucker operation
- Lending since
- 2003
- Loan amounts
- $200–$500
- APR range
- 400–700%
- Product
- payday
- Website
- unitedcashloans.com
What a UnitedCashLoans loan cost
The FTC established that the loan documents were deceptive and violated TILA. The clearest proof is a single comparison: the contract said a $300 loan would cost $390 to repay. It cost $975.
The gap came from the withdrawal schedule. Every payday the lender took the finance charge and nothing else — principal untouched until at least the fifth payday, after which $50 per payday began chipping at it while the charges continued.
A borrower doing everything right, never missing a payment, watched money leave their account for months against a balance that had not moved. That is not a pricing problem; it is the product.
The settlement that waived the debt
On 15 January 2015, AMG Services and MNE Services agreed to pay $21 million and to waive $285 million in charges that had been assessed but not yet collected. The order covered AmeriLoan, United Cash Loans, US FastCash, Advantage Cash Services and Star Cash Processing.
That waiver is the part that still matters. A refund deadline can pass; a waived charge stays waived. If a collector produces a United Cash Loans balance today, the charges behind it were extinguished a decade ago.
A further settlement in November 2015 took Red Cedar and SFS for $2.2 million each plus $68 million more in waived charges, bringing the total waived across the seven brands to roughly $353 million.
Where the refund money actually came from
In October 2016 the FTC won $1,301,897,652 against Tucker — its largest litigated judgment ever. On 22 April 2021 the Supreme Court unanimously vacated it in AMG Capital Management v. FTC, holding that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not authorise equitable monetary relief.
Yet borrowers were repaid: 1,179,803 checks worth over $505 million in September 2018, and roughly 690,000 more worth over $152 million in May 2022.
Both facts are true because the money came from elsewhere — the DOJ criminal case and settlements entered before the Supreme Court ruled. The DOJ remitted over $500 million to the FTC in June 2018.
This is worth getting right, because "the FTC won $1.3 billion and refunded it" is a story you will read often and it is wrong in a way that matters: it suggests a judgment can deliver money after it has been vacated. It cannot. The refunds survived the ruling only because they did not depend on it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still owe money on a United Cash Loans loan?
You should not. The January 2015 FTC settlement waived $285 million in assessed-but-uncollected charges covering this brand. If someone is collecting, demand written validation and proof of ownership, and report them to the FTC.
Can I still claim a refund?
No. Refunds went out automatically — over $505M in 2018 and $152M more in 2022 — with no claim form. Both distributions are closed; the last cashing deadline was 17 August 2022.
Was United Cash Loans a Miami Tribe business?
MNE Services under the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma was the named entity, but Scott Tucker ran the operation and was not a tribal member. In 2014 the court established that tribes are subject to the FTC Act; Tucker was convicted of racketeering in 2017.
This brand is one of many that stopped lending — and in several cases the balances were legally wiped out in a settlement. See the full picture: which tribal lenders shut down, and were the debts cancelled?