Clients of cash advance app Brigit will get more than $17 million after they signed up to false promises of "instant" cash advances that trapped them into monthly memberships, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday.
The FTC will send payments starting on Nov. 18 to more than 1.8 million people who signed up for Brigit's cash advances. They will receive an email if they are eligibile by Nov. 15.
The payments stem from the FTC's regulatory action against Brigit in 2023.
Brigit advertised that customers could get "instant" cash advances of up to $250 "whenever you need it" and could cancel their $9.99 monthly membership anytime.
Instead, the FTC said Brigit took in millions of dollars from members, including 99 cent fees for "free instant transfers," rarely provided the promised $250 and in many cases didn't send a cash advance at all.
Brigit also made it very hard for members to cancel by creating a confusing and misleading process, the FTC said, including preventing people with an open cash advance from cancelling while withdrawing $9.99 a month until the advance was paid off.
To resolve the dispute, Brigit agreed to stop its allegedly deceptive marketing practices, end tactics that make it hard to cancel and pay more than $18 million, the FTC said.
“Brigit trapped those consumers least able to afford it into monthly membership plans they struggled to escape from,” said Sam Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in 2023 after an agreement was reached.