Attorney General Jeff Jackson Reaches $183.5 Million Settlement with Rent-to-Own Finance Company for Deceiving Consumers

NC consumers will get more than $1.6 million in restitution and more than $4.2 million in lease forgiveness

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 12, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
919-538-2809

RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson and a bipartisan coalition of 42 other states have reached a $183.5 million settlement over deceptive rent-to-own practices with Acima Digital, LLC and its parent company. Acima is a finance company that partners with large retailers such as Best Buy, Ashley Furniture and Rooms To Go to provide rent-to-own options to people buying big-ticket products like furniture, appliances and electronics.

The settlement, which is subject to court approval, includes $43 million in nationwide consumer restitution and $130 million in reductions to their leases across the country. More than 6,200 North Carolinians will receive a total of $1,668,588 in restitution, and more than 3,300 North Carolinians will receive a total of $4,244,022 in lease forgiveness.

Consumers who are eligible for restitution or lease forgiveness do not need to take any actions. Those who are eligible for restitution will be contacted by the settlement administrator, and those eligible for lease forgiveness will be contacted by Acima.

"Acima tricked North Carolinians into rent-to-own agreements with unfair, unexpected terms that left them with higher costs," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "This settlement means they can't do this to anyone else, and it brings money back to thousands of North Carolinians who were deceived by Acima."

When customers make major purchases from stores, Acima lets them rent the items by making auto-renewing payments. Customers can purchase the item by continuing to make payments for a set period of time or by paying off what they owe early. Acima, however, led customers to believe that their payment periods were for 90 days and that they wouldn't be charged interest, but then automatically enrolled customers into a 12-month payment plan that included interest without telling them. That meant some customers paid twice the price advertised by the retailer and were often confused when Acima continued to withdraw money after the 90-day period or after they had repaid the price of the item.

Additionally, Acima advertised that it wouldn't do credit checks, but did. It also advertised that the agreements would not create debt but acted like a debt collector by calling consumers, sending threatening emails, and making negative reports to credit reporting agencies when customers missed a payment.

Acima also marked up the price of merchandise that customers were renting to own, didn't train its retail partners on the true cost of its rent-to-own agreements, didn't clearly disclose the terms of the agreements to customers, engaged in deceptive credit reporting, used deceptive servicing agreements, and prevented customers from getting out of their agreements without a penalty by returning the purchases to Acima.

In addition to the restitution and lease forgiveness, the settlement requires Acima to:

• Train its retail partners.

• Refrain from deceptive advertising.

• Clearly display the terms and conditions of its agreements during the electronic signature process.

• Stop marking up its retail partners' prices.

• Stop preventing customers from getting out of their agreements by returning their purchases to Acima.

• Refrain from reporting rent-to-own agreements to the big three credit reporting companies for five years.

• Properly handle late deliveries, damaged merchandise, and make repairs to merchandise during the lease.

Attorney General Jackson is joined in reaching the settlement by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

A copy of the consent judgment is available here.

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