Harpeth Financial Services LLC, which does business as Advance Financial, has filed more than 110,000 collection lawsuits against Tennessee borrowers since 2015, winning over $200 million in judgments and garnishing the wages of roughly 40 percent of the people it has sued.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them2ProPublica. Flex Loans Tennessee Advance Financial The lawsuits are collection actions on Advance Financial’s high-interest Flex Loans, and most are filed in Tennessee’s general sessions courts, where borrowers rarely appear with an attorney and the company wins by default.
Who Is Suing You: Harpeth Financial and Advance Financial
Harpeth Financial Services LLC and Advance Financial are the same company. Court filings, including Wendy Atkinson v. Harpeth Financial Services, LLC, confirm that Harpeth Financial “does business under the name Advance Financial.”3A&O Shearman US Arbitration Tracker. Atkinson v. Harpeth Financial Services The company is co-owned by Michael and Tina Hodges and operates roughly 80 storefronts across Tennessee.4ProPublica. Tennessee Sports Gambling Action247 Loans
The distinction matters in the courtroom. Advance Financial typically files its collection suits under the Harpeth Financial Services name, which can leave defendants unsure whether the plaintiff on the summons is the same business they borrowed from.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them If you have been served, it is the storefront lender.
The Flex Loan Behind Almost Every Lawsuit
The debt at the center of these suits is the Flex Loan, an open-ended line of credit authorized by Tennessee’s Flexible Credit Act, passed in 2014 and codified at Tennessee Code Annotated sections 45-12-101 and following.5Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions. Flexible Credit Laws Borrowers can draw up to $4,000. The statute allows a lender to charge up to 24 percent annual interest plus a daily “customary fee” of 0.7 percent of the outstanding balance, which the statute labels as a fee rather than interest so the product avoids traditional usury limits.6Tennessee General Assembly. Public Chapter 969 Over a year the daily charge alone adds about 255.5 percent, and Advance Financial’s own terms disclose a combined APR of roughly 279.5 percent.7Advance Financial. Tennessee Terms and Conditions
Each billing cycle, borrowers must pay all accrued fees and interest plus 3 percent of the principal. That structure should pay the loan down over time. In practice, the company sends automated notifications inviting borrowers to reborrow nearly the full amount of the payment they just made, resetting the balance. One borrower documented reborrowing almost 80 times in 18 months.8ProPublica. Flex Lenders Reborrow When a borrower eventually stops paying, the balance sued on often reflects fees and interest that have accumulated across many of those cycles, and the statute also lets the lender recover attorney’s fees of up to one-third of the balance, which is why judgments frequently reach nearly three times the amount originally borrowed.2ProPublica. Flex Loans Tennessee Advance Financial
How Many Lawsuits and Where
Since 2015, Advance Financial and Harpeth Financial Services have filed more than 110,000 collection cases across Tennessee. In Davidson County alone the company has filed over 22,000 suits. In Hamblen County, an Appalachian community of about 66,000 people, the company filed one case for roughly every 32 residents. Across the 59 counties with electronic records, the rate was about one lawsuit for every 50 residents.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them
Judgments are often in the thousands of dollars, and some exceed $10,000. About 40 percent of cases end in wage garnishment, which under Tennessee law can be enforced for up to a decade after a judgment is entered.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them Total judgments since 2015 exceed $200 million.2ProPublica. Flex Loans Tennessee Advance Financial
What Happens in Court
Nearly all of these cases are filed in Tennessee’s general sessions courts, which handle claims under $25,000.9Sycamore Institute. Davidson Debt Collection The company wins the majority of them because borrowers often fail to appear. When a defendant does not show, the court enters a default judgment, and the lender does not have to present detailed documentation proving the exact amount owed.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them
The imbalance in legal help is severe. In Davidson County debt-collection cases, plaintiffs have an attorney about 99 percent of the time; defendants have one about 0.6 percent of the time.9Sycamore Institute. Davidson Debt Collection Consumer law attorney Marla Williams of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee said the volume of lawsuits is the company’s “business model.”1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them
The time to fight is before a judgment is entered, because Tennessee law gives defendants only ten days to file a motion to set aside a general sessions judgment. In Harpeth Financial Services, LLC v. Corey Montez Lea, Sr., decided by the Tennessee Court of Appeals in April 2026, a borrower tried to overturn a judgment six months later, alleging fraud and that he never agreed to the terms. Both the circuit court and the appellate court refused to hear the case, holding that the ten-day deadline is jurisdictional and that the fraud claims did not make the judgment “void” in a way that would excuse the delay.10Tennessee Courts. Harpeth Financial Services LLC v. Corey Montez Lea Sr.
When Borrowers Get Legal Help
Outcomes shift when defendants show up with a lawyer. In a 2024 case, Williams reduced a client’s court-ordered payments from several hundred dollars a month to about $50. In another case, a judge reduced fees the company had added after a borrower stopped paying, calling the charges “unconscionable and unjust.”2ProPublica. Flex Loans Tennessee Advance Financial Debt-collection plaintiffs also tend to drop cases altogether once a defendant secures representation.9Sycamore Institute. Davidson Debt Collection The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee is one source of free representation for qualifying borrowers.
Regulatory Response and the Virginia Comparison
Tennessee’s regulators have done little. A consumer who filed a complaint with the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs saw the state investigate and take no action.8ProPublica. Flex Lenders Reborrow According to the company, the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions received only 91 complaints about flexible credit lenders between 2020 and early 2025.1Tennessee Lookout. This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them No enforcement action by the Tennessee Attorney General has been publicly reported, and as of mid-2025 no reform legislation had been introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly in response to the ProPublica and Tennessee Lookout investigation.11Tennessee Lookout. Tennessee Lawmakers and Lenders Said This Law Would Protect Borrowers but It Trapped Them in Debt
Virginia acted. In September 2020, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced a settlement with Shiva Finance LLC, which does business as Advance Financial 24/7. The investigation found that between October 2017 and January 2020, the company’s contracts required borrowers to resolve disputes through arbitration or small claims court while the company itself filed nearly 2,000 collection cases in general district courts using attorneys. The settlement provided over $1.2 million in relief to about 1,500 consumers, including roughly $359,000 in restitution and more than $830,000 in forgiven attorney’s fees and costs, plus $10,000 in civil penalties.12Virginia Attorney General. Herring Reaches Settlement With Internet Lender Advance Financial Virginia also passed the Fairness in Lending Act in 2020, capping interest at 36 percent plus limited fees and making violating loans void and uncollectible.13Pew Charitable Trusts. How Virginia’s Fairness in Lending Act Reforms Small-Dollar Loans That Virginia settlement does not reach Tennessee borrowers; it applied to consumers of the Virginia entity Shiva Finance LLC.
What the Company Says
Advance Financial has maintained that it provides a legitimate service to consumers who lack access to traditional credit. Cullen Earnest, the company’s senior vice president of public policy, told reporters that Advance Financial holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and that the 91 complaints received by Tennessee regulators since 2020 represent “less than 0.001% of all new Flex Loan agreements” during that period.2ProPublica. Flex Loans Tennessee Advance Financial The company’s terms note that it charges no annual fees, late fees, or penalty fees and allows borrowers to pay off their balance at any time without a prepayment penalty.7Advance Financial. Tennessee Terms and Conditions Representative Gloria Johnson, who voted for the 2014 bill that created the Flex Loan, told reporters, “I definitely would not vote that way today, and would like to work to fix that massive mistake that’s hurt so many Tennesseans.”11Tennessee Lookout. Tennessee Lawmakers and Lenders Said This Law Would Protect Borrowers but It Trapped Them in Debt