Blue Trust Loans Review: Is It Legit, and What Happened to the Lender?

Blue Trust Loans was an online installment lender run by Hummingbird Funds, LLC, a business owned by the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in Hayward, Wisconsin. It sold small-dollar installment loans from $100 to $3,000 as an alternative to payday loans. Most of its customers were working people with thin or damaged credit who needed cash before their next paycheck.

The appeal was simple: an online application, no minimum credit score, payments spread across several paydays, and no penalty for paying early. The price was steep. Disclosed APRs ran from roughly 472% to 841%, and the brand later landed in federal class action lawsuits that challenged its tribal structure.

So should you consider Blue Trust Loans? Not as a new borrower. The Blue Trust brand stopped lending in 2022, the operation moved to a successor called eLoanWarehouse, and Hummingbird Funds was formally dissolved in November 2023. Below you will find what the company offered, how legitimate it was, what to do with an old account, and where former customers compare options now.

Blue Trust Loans Pros and Cons

Is Blue Trust Loans Legit?

Yes, in the sense that it was a real lender and not a fake website. Blue Trust Loans was the trade name of Hummingbird Funds, LLC. According to the company’s own disclosures, Hummingbird Funds served as the tribal lending agency of Lac Courte Oreilles Financial Services, LLC, an arm of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. The Band is a federally recognized tribe, and the lender listed its offices on West Trepania Road in Hayward.

Hummingbird Funds lent its own money. It was a direct lender, not a broker or a matching service, so the company that approved your application was the same one that funded the loan and collected payments. It operated from the mid-2010s until it wound down in 2022, and it kept a business profile with the Better Business Bureau that carried an alert about its sovereign status.

Tribal ownership shaped everything about the product. The lender said it answered to tribal law and that neither it nor the tribe waived sovereign immunity. In practice, that meant state interest rate caps were not applied to its loans, and borrowers who had a problem were directed to the dispute process written into the loan agreement instead of a state regulator.

That legal setup is exactly what critics attacked. In September 2023, an Illinois borrower filed Kalkbrenner v. Hummingbird Funds, LLC in federal court in Chicago. The complaint alleged that non-tribal investors and offshore companies actually ran the lending business and used the tribe’s name to avoid state usury laws. The plaintiff’s February 2022 loan reportedly carried an APR of 415.67%. An earlier federal complaint in the Southern District of Alabama made similar claims. These are allegations, not court findings, and the case records are public if you want to follow them.

State availability was never nationwide. Blue Trust skipped states that actively block high-rate online lending, and some state regulators, including Washington’s Department of Financial Institutions, have published consumer alerts about lenders connected to the tribe’s lending arm.

One practical warning: because the brand is gone, be careful with anyone who calls or texts claiming to collect a Blue Trust debt. Ask for written proof of the original loan, the current balance, and who owns the account now before you send any money.

Blue Trust Loans Tribal Loan Amounts, Rates, Terms

Blue Trust offered one product: an unsecured personal installment loan. There were no single-payment payday loans, no credit lines, and no title loans. Advertised amounts ran from $100 to $3,000, but new customers could not reach the top of that range right away. Reviewers reported first-loan limits of $1,200 to $1,500 at different points in the company’s history, with the full $3,000 opening up only after several loans were repaid.

Pricing was quoted as a fee for every $100 borrowed. Converted to annual terms, disclosed APRs fell between 471.78% and 841.45%. Club Blue members with a clean payment history could qualify for discounted fees on later loans, but even the lower end of the range sat far above what banks and credit unions charge.

Repayment usually stretched over up to six months. Payments landed weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly to match your paydays, which meant anywhere from about 6 to 24 automatic debits from your checking account. You could pay extra or pay the loan off at any time without a penalty, and doing so was the single most effective way to reduce the total cost.

Funding typically arrived the next business day after approval. Borrowers who were approved and signed their documents before about 11:45 a.m. Eastern on a business day could see a same-day deposit, although timing still depended on verification and the borrower’s bank.

To qualify, applicants needed to be at least 18, live in a state Blue Trust served, have an active checking account that accepted direct deposit, show a regular source of income, and provide a working phone number and email. Active-duty service members and their dependents were excluded, since the federal Military Lending Act caps covered loans at 36% APR.

All of these terms describe the closed Blue Trust brand. The successor, eLoanWarehouse, is operated by a different company, Opichi Funds, LLC, and sets its own amounts, rates, and state list. If you look at it, read its loan agreement and APR disclosure line by line instead of assuming the old Blue Trust terms carried over.

How to Apply for Blue Trust Loans

Blue Trust no longer takes applications. Still, knowing how its process worked helps you judge similar tribal lenders. Here is what applicants went through:

Today, the Blue Trust website displays a notice about the transition to eLoanWarehouse and a formal dissolution notice for Hummingbird Funds. Applying through the successor creates a new loan with a separate company, so treat it as a fresh decision and compare it with the lenders listed in the Sites Like Blue Trust Loans section above.

Blue Trust Loans Login

While the lender was active, the customer account was the hub for an open loan. Borrowers signed in to check the remaining balance and upcoming payment dates, make an extra or early payment, request a payoff amount, view their signed loan agreement, and update contact or banking details. A forgotten password was reset from the sign-in page through the email address on file.

Former customers have reported trouble reaching the company after the name change, and some only learned about the switch while trying to get a payoff figure. If you still have an open Blue Trust balance, these steps keep you in control:

The company published 1-877-770-2682 as its Blue Trust Loans phone number and [email protected] as its customer service email. With the operating entity dissolved, those channels may no longer reach anyone. The dissolution notice directed written claims against Hummingbird Funds to Lac Courte Oreilles Financial Services in Hayward and set a deadline of February 25, 2024.

We found no record of a dedicated Blue Trust Loans mobile app on Android or iOS. Borrowers applied and managed their accounts through the website.

Blue Trust Loans Customer Reviews

Positive Blue Trust Loans reviews tend to come from people who were turned down elsewhere. They mention getting approved despite low scores, finishing the application in one sitting, and seeing money in their account quickly when a car repair or rent shortfall could not wait. Many also liked splitting the cost across several paychecks instead of handing over one large payment two weeks later.

Returning customers often pointed to the early payoff option and Club Blue discounts, which made a short loan less painful.

The negative side is loud and consistent. The most common theme is sticker shock after realizing how much the full schedule would cost. One borrower described taking $500 and facing a repayment several times larger. Others said they expected monthly payments but saw debits every other week. Several reviews describe aggressive collection calls and trouble getting a payoff amount after the name changed from Hummingbird Funds. On SuperMoney, the community verdict leaned strongly toward not recommending the lender.

Blue Trust Loans Complaints

Cost. APR is the top complaint by a wide margin. Borrowers who kept a loan for the full term often paid back far more than they borrowed, and many did not grasp the dollar total until the debits started.

Payment schedule. Because payments were set to match pay frequency, some borrowers felt the number and timing of debits differed from what they expected. Overdraft fees from their own banks made those surprises worse.

Loan size. Applicants drawn in by the $3,000 headline were frustrated to receive a much smaller first loan.

Collections and old balances. Blue Trust borrowers did not receive the kind of debt cancellation granted in the 2024 settlement involving lenders linked to the Lac du Flambeau Band. No public refund program covers Blue Trust loans. Whether an old balance is legally collectible depends on your state. Illinois, for example, treats loans above 9% interest from unlicensed lenders as void, according to the Kalkbrenner complaint. A state attorney general’s office, a state financial regulator, or a consumer attorney can tell you where you stand.

Customer service. Reaching a live person became harder during the move to eLoanWarehouse, and several reviewers describe payoff requests that went unanswered.

Availability. Applicants in excluded states and military families were turned away.

If you have an unresolved issue, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, your state attorney general, or your state banking regulator. The BBB also accepts complaints, although it cannot force a resolution.

Who Should Consider Blue Trust Loans?

New borrowers cannot apply, but the profile below shows who the product fit when it was active. Use it as a yardstick for any similar tribal lender you are weighing.