They called Shrikanth, threatening to start reaching out to people from his contact list. Pritam repaid part of his loan, but the amount due was never reduced on the app to reflect that. Nithin had repaid his loan a few days ago, but the app still showed that he had money due, on which hefty interest was accruing day by day. If we are to believe the reviews on the Play Store page of the Loan Home app, which has at least 1 lakh downloads, endless customers have shared their horror stories with the app in just August this year. Till now, apps like Loan Home have managed to slip through the cracks of Play Store policies. This month, however, Google’s Play Store is set to change its requirements for digital lending apps in India, only allowing lending apps that are either registered with the RBI or those that facilitate transactions with registered entities. App stores owned by Apple and Google have come under fire for charging commissions as high as 30% from apps on their platform. To justify these high commissions, the companies often point to their robust security and approval systems preventing harm to users. The fact that predatory lending apps are still targetting Indian users through the Play Store, however, exposes a significant loophole in that reasoning. Google to introduce new requirements for lending apps in India Loan Home, which is developed by the developer KoinHappyBoykins, enjoys an average rating of 4 stars on the Play Store. When…
