How ATM.com's Instant Cash works

ATM.com is an app best known for paying users small amounts for surveys, games and shopping offers. It also offers ATM Instant Cash, which advances up to $100 ahead of your next paycheck.

To get an advance, you link the bank account where your pay is deposited. ATM.com reviews that account and decides how much you can receive. The money usually arrives the same day. On your next expected deposit date, ATM.com automatically pulls the advance, plus its fees, back out of that account.

Instant Cash is sold as a membership. ATM.com's own help center says it "is a membership with a monthly platform fee." ATM.com's terms list the charges a member can face:

  • A monthly platform fee for ongoing access, which renews every month until you pause or cancel.
  • A one-time initial platform fee, where it applies.
  • A transaction fee on each advance.
  • A tip, which the app invites you to add.

The exact dollar amounts are shown only inside the app, at the moment you confirm an advance.

Why these fees work like interest

ATM.com's terms say its fees "are not interest." Its home page promises "No interest" and says ATM.com is not a lender. But the charges do exactly what interest does: they are the price you pay to have money now and pay it back later.

The length of the loan is what makes these charges expensive. An advance repaid from your next paycheck is usually out for a week or two. A monthly fee and a per-advance fee charged against $100 or less for that short a time add up to a very high rate when it is measured as a yearly percentage, the way a credit card or bank loan is measured. ATM.com never shows the cost that way, so a user has no easy way to compare an Instant Cash advance with other ways to borrow.

ATM.com also calls its advances non-recourse, meaning it says it will not sue you or send unpaid advances to collectors. Its own terms describe a system built to get repaid anyway. It debits your account automatically on payday, it can retry debits that fail, it can take partial payments, and it can pull money from any balance you have in the app. Its help center warns that a missed monthly fee can be collected later, sometimes together with the next month's fee. And you cannot fully cancel the membership while an advance is still unpaid.

What the law requires

Federal lending-disclosure law requires a lender to state the cost of credit as a finance charge and as an annual percentage rate. That rule looks at what a charge does, not what the company calls it. When you pay a fee in order to get money that comes back out of your paycheck days later, that fee can be the cost of the credit, whether it is labeled a platform fee, a transaction fee or a tip.

State law adds two more protections. Most states cap the interest a lender can charge. Where the true rate on these advances runs above a state's cap, the advances may be unlawful loans, and many states let borrowers recover the charges and add penalties. Separately, every state's consumer-protection law bars advertising that hides what a product really costs. Promising "No interest" on a product whose fees act as interest is the kind of claim those laws are aimed at.

We are reviewing whether ATM.com's Instant Cash crossed those lines.

Who may have a claim

This is worth a look if you took an ATM Instant Cash advance and paid a monthly platform fee, a transaction fee, a tip, or any combination of them. You do not need to still use the app. Former members may qualify too. You also do not need to have thought anything was wrong at the time; the point of these claims is that the cost was never shown to you as a rate you could compare.

If your claim succeeds, you could recover the unlawful interest you paid ATM.com, meaning the platform fees, transaction fees and tips that worked as the cost of your advances, plus statutory damages. What is available depends on your state.

Maginnis Howard is a consumer protection law firm representing clients nationwide. There is no cost to have your situation reviewed and no fee unless we recover money for you. You do not need statements or screenshots to start. Roughly when you used Instant Cash and what you were charged is enough.

The legal basis

Why this may be illegal

ATM.com promotes small cash advances with no interest. To get one, users can be charged a transaction fee, a platform fee and a recurring monthly platform fee, and are asked to tip. On a small advance repaid within days or weeks, those charges can add up to a very high yearly rate.

The law

Fees charged to advance money that is repaid from a user's next deposit can count as finance charges no matter what the company calls them. When those charges are not disclosed as the cost of credit, or exceed state rate limits, users may be entitled to refunds and damages.

What you could recover

You could recover the unlawful interest you paid on your advances, meaning the transfer fees, tips and membership charges that worked as the cost of borrowing, plus statutory damages. What is available depends on your state. Where the true yearly rate on the advances ran above your state's interest-rate cap, many states let borrowers recover those charges and add penalties. State consumer-protection laws provide statutory damages that vary by state, and some states increase them for willful conduct. For advances taken in roughly the last year, federal lending-disclosure law adds damages of twice the undisclosed finance charge, within set limits. Attorney fees are recoverable under federal law and many state laws.

How your claim would be handled

Claims like this are handled as individual arbitration cases — private proceedings, no courtroom. For ATM.com, Inc. (Instant Cash), cases are typically administered through AAA.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I have to pay for this?

You don't pay anything unless we recover compensation on your behalf. Our legal team works on contingency, which means we only get paid if you do.

ATM.com said Instant Cash has no interest. Do I still have a claim?

Possibly. ATM.com promotes Instant Cash as "No interest," but the monthly platform fee, transaction fees and tips you paid may have worked as the cost of borrowing. That cost was never shown to you as an interest rate.

What if I chose to add a tip?

If you paid a tip when you took an advance, it may count toward your claim. Tell us about it in the questionnaire.

Do I need to still use the app?

No. Both current and former ATM.com users who were charged these fees within the last four years may qualify.

What is Maginnis Howard?

Maginnis Howard is a consumer protection and personal injury law firm serving clients nationwide. You may find more details about us at www.carolinalaw.com.

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