The US Federal Trade Commission has begun distributing more than $15.8 million to customers of the cash-advance app Cleo, turning an earlier enforcement settlement into one of the agency’s larger consumer-redress programmes.
The agency says 2,124,796 people who paid for eligible instant cash advances will receive PayPal payments. Recipients have 30 days to accept the money and do not need to pay a fee or provide account information to the FTC to claim it.
The refunds follow a 2025 complaint alleging that Cleo AI made deceptive claims about how much money users could obtain and how quickly advances would arrive. The FTC also alleged that customers were charged fees for same-day or instant delivery when funds often arrived later, and that subscription cancellation was made unnecessarily difficult. The allegations were resolved through a settlement providing $17 million for refunds and related relief.
The payments beginning October 27 do not reopen the liability case. They implement the remedy already obtained, with the difference between the settlement amount and the distribution reflecting administration and eligibility rules.
Consumers can check the agency’s official Cleo refund page for eligibility information and the designated administrator’s contact details.
