Arrowhead Advance Watchlist
Wakpamni Lake Community Corp. (Oglala Sioux) · lending since 2016
Arrowhead Advance charges no origination or prepayment fee — genuinely rare here — which makes the standard escape (pay the principal, revoke ACH) actually feasible. Its catch is an arbitration clause courts keep enforcing.
Arrowhead Advance at a glance
Watchlist- Owning tribe
- Wakpamni Lake Community Corp. (Oglala Sioux)
- Lending since
- 2016
- Loan amounts
- $100–$1,500
- APR range
- 200–830%
- Product
- installment
- Website
- arrowheadadvance.com
What an Arrowhead Advance loan really costs
Arrowhead Advance lends $100–$1,000 as an installment loan at 200–830% APR — a $500 loan runs about $1,357 over five months. What sets it apart from most tribal lenders is what it does not charge: no origination fee, no application fee, and no prepayment penalty.
That matters, because it makes the classic escape genuinely workable — repay the principal quickly, then revoke ACH authorization, without fees stacking against you. Expect heavy marketing to re-borrow once you have paid off.
- No origination fee, no application fee, no prepayment penalty.
- No hard credit pull at application.
- Small loan sizes ($100–$1,000) limit how deep you can go.
- APRs run 200–830%; a $500 loan costs about $1,357 over five months.
- Its arbitration clause has repeatedly been enforced, blunting class relief.
- No BBB profile; Trustpilot sits near 1.6 ("Bad").
- Heavy repeat-solicitation after payoff.
Where Arrowhead Advance lends
Arrowhead lends in roughly 29 states and does not publish a clean exclusion list; Washington's DFI has flagged the operation as unlicensed there.
Does Arrowhead Advance report to credit bureaus?
Arrowhead does not report to the three major bureaus and runs no hard pull, so a loan neither builds nor immediately dents your credit; it underwrites off subprime bureaus. A default can go to collections.
Who actually owns and runs Arrowhead Advance
Arrowhead Advance is operated by WLCC II, LLC, a corporation of the Wakpamni Lake Community under the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Pine Ridge, South Dakota), lending since around 2017. It runs a sibling brand, First Day Loans, under the same corporation. The non-tribal back-office operator is not publicly named, though litigation names three individuals as co-defendants.
Why the lawsuits keep going to arbitration
Arrowhead has faced multiple rent-a-tribe class actions — Bock v. WLCC (N.D. Ill.) and Easley v. WLCC II (S.D. Ala.) among them — but its defining legal feature is that courts keep enforcing its arbitration clause.
In Easley, an Alabama judge ruled Arrowhead could not dodge Alabama lending law, yet still compelled the borrower's future claims into arbitration. The practical effect: even borrowers who win individually cannot easily bring a class, which limits broad relief.
What Arrowhead Advance costs in dollars
Arrowhead Advance's published ceiling is 830% APR. Below is what that rate does to the amounts it actually lends, repaid over 12 monthly payments.
| You borrow | Monthly | Total repaid | Interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | $69 | $832 | $732 |
| $800 | $554 | $6,652 | $5,852 |
| $1,500 | $1,039 | $12,473 | $10,973 |
At 830%, a $100 balance accrues about $69 in interest every month. Any payment below that figure leaves you owing more than you started with, however long you pay.
Standard amortisation at the published ceiling rate; fees are not included, and your actual rate and term may differ. Run your own numbers in the payoff calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Does Arrowhead Advance charge fees?
No origination, application or prepayment fee — unusual for a tribal lender. The cost is entirely in the 200–830% APR, which means repaying the principal early (then revoking ACH) is a genuinely effective way to limit what you pay.
Can I join a class action against Arrowhead Advance?
It is difficult. Courts have repeatedly enforced Arrowhead’s arbitration clause (e.g., Easley v. WLCC II), pushing borrowers into individual arbitration rather than class litigation — even when a borrower’s individual claim is strong.
What tribe owns Arrowhead Advance?
WLCC II, LLC, a corporation of the Wakpamni Lake Community under the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. It also runs First Day Loans. Washington’s DFI lists the operation as unlicensed there.
Is Arrowhead Advance a tribal loan?
Yes. Arrowhead Advance is a tribal lending brand owned by the Wakpamni Lake Community Corp. in SD. That means it lends under tribal law and claims sovereign immunity from your state's interest-rate cap, rather than holding a state lending licence. It is also why its APR reaches 200–830% — far above the roughly 36% cap most states set for small loans. Whether the loan is enforceable where you live depends on your state.
What does an Arrowhead Advance loan cost?
Arrowhead Advance lends $100–$1,500 at 200–830% APR. At those rates the total repaid is typically several times the amount borrowed, because interest is front-loaded — check the total of payments, not the monthly figure.
Is an Arrowhead Advance loan legal in my state?
It depends entirely on your state. High-cost tribal loans are effectively banned in nine states, where a loan above the rate cap can be void and not legally collectible, and restricted in many more. Arrowhead Advance claims tribal sovereign immunity from those caps — an argument courts have accepted in some cases and rejected in others. Check your state before you borrow, and especially before you pay a collector.
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Entries are built from the lender's own published disclosures, tribal corporate and lending-authority records, federal and state court filings, and CFPB, FTC and state regulator actions. Of the 143 brands in the full list of tribal lenders, 41 are confirmed lending, 74 sit on a watchlist pending verification, and 28 have shut down. Where a figure cannot be sourced we leave it blank rather than estimate it — which is why some entries are deliberately incomplete.
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