When jeweline simmons needed a home-improvement loan in 1999, she went to Shelter Mortgage in East St. Louis, Ill., thinking the broker would get her the lowest interest rate possible. She qualified for a 9.8% rate, but she wasn't told that. Instead, Shelter steered her to a loan at 10.7%. Its reward for this tidy piece of salesmanship: a $604.50 payment from lender EquiCredit Corp., according to U.S. District Court documents. "I was rushed through some paperwork without knowing what was going on," Simmons says. Only after she had fallen behind on payments and contacted a lawyer did she learn that she was paying too much. She sued Shelter and EquiCredit, which couldn't be reached for comment, and settled out of court.
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