Bright Lending would cancel the balances of some borrowers and pay others at least $15 in cash under a proposed $15 million class action settlement. The lender, which operates as Aaniiih Nakoda Finance, LLC, denies any wrongdoing.
The settlement website says no claim form is needed. Borrowers who want a payment sent electronically, or who need to update a mailing address, must act by December 21, 2026.
Who is covered by the Bright Lending settlement?
The settlement FAQ sets up two groups of U.S. residents, and residents of Nevada and Utah are excluded from both. The Monetary Relief Class is made up of people who took out at least one loan with Bright Lending between October 1, 2020 and June 4, 2026 and paid back at least one loan fully.
The Debt Relief Class covers people who took out at least one loan between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2024, did not fully pay back at least one loan, and are not in the Monetary Relief Class. The case is Dixon v. Gatzke, No. 24-cv-11834, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
How much cash is on offer?
The fund is $15,000,000. Cash payments from it are calculated pro rata, according to the allegedly usurious interest a borrower paid above the loan’s principal. The FAQ says “No payment will be less than $15” and that a borrower who did not pay interest above principal will receive $15.
The $15 is a floor, not a typical payment. The site does not give an estimated average. It also notes that class counsel is asking for up to 33.33% of the fund in fees, which would reduce the amount left to distribute.
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Is a borrower’s loan balance actually gone?
For the Debt Relief Class, the FAQ says an outstanding balance on a loan from October 1, 2020 to December 31, 2024 “will be cancelled after the Settlement becomes final.” That wording matters, because the court has not given final approval yet. The final fairness hearing is set for January 19, 2027, at 9:00 a.m., according to the site’s key-dates page.
Until then, a borrower who still owes money has no cancelled balance on paper. A person who received a collection call about a Bright Lending loan should keep the date and caller’s name, since the cancellation applies only to balances from the loan dates above.
How do payments get sent?
The site says payments go out automatically, so there is nothing to file. By default a check is mailed. Monetary Relief Class members may provide an updated mailing address for the check, or elect to receive payment electronically by ACH, Venmo, PayPal or Zelle instead of a paper check.
The deadline to make that change is December 21, 2026. Electronic payment is chosen on the settlement site’s “Select Payment Method” page, and an updated address goes through the “Update Address” page.
What other dates and rights apply?
The key-dates page lists December 21, 2026 as both the exclusion deadline and the objection deadline. A borrower who opts out gives up the right to receive any settlement benefits, while a borrower who objects can write to the court to say why the settlement should not be approved.
The notice names several defendants besides the lender, including Benjamin Gatzke, Taylor McCabe, William Bell, BWDS, LLC and others. It says all defendants deny wrongdoing and liability. The settlement administrator can be reached at 1-800-797-0699, or by mail at Dixon v Gatzke (956), c/o Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 23459, Jacksonville, FL 32241-3459.
The free official route for every step is the Bright Lending settlement website, which also has the court documents and the full settlement agreement.
What the site does not yet answer is the amount any one borrower will see. That depends on interest paid and on how much the court allows in fees, and neither figure is fixed until the court rules in January.
Not sure a Bright Lending balance is cleared before December 21?
A borrower who believes a Bright Lending loan was cancelled can still hear from a collector about it, and without dates and names on paper there is nothing to point to. The December 21 date to choose a payment method passes quickly.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit includes the debt-validation steps for making a collector prove a debt, plus a debt inventory, call log and deadline tracker that keeps each loan, caller and date in one place.
Get the call log and debt-validation checklist for a Bright Lending balance →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
