R.W.,
I live in THE GREAT STATE of TEXAS and you see PDL companies all over the place ? Why? Because they know it's an easy buck and the easy part comes from taking advantage of someone who can't pay the rent, electricity, or . . . whatever, on time and have to depend on the only place in town that'll give'em enough money to temporarily keep their heads above water and that's the payday loan store. NOw being up against your budget, you know you need $500 dollars to pay the rent 'cause, say, the car breaks down. Well, you can't go to the banks. You can't pawn enough stuff 'cause they only give you twenty cents on the dollar, and maybe your relatives are living from paycheck to paycheck just like you. So, faced with the choice of having to pay the electric or sit in the house in the burning heat or freezing cold, you trot down to the pdl store and get hooked up. YOu get the green, but now you have to pay it back and the pdl people know that you're having difficulty, but they won't budge. You've exhausted all avenues, including the church. In your budget, you may have $300 after all is paid, but with this car situation and having to get a loan, you're now a coupla' hundred over budget. That's the story there and it's as common as seeing a penny on the sidewalk. We've all been through it and it betcha' I can guarantee 99.5 percent of the boardmembers have/had ever intention of making good on the loan. But life is like a piece of wood. Ever build a piece of furniture. Wood comes from a living, breathing tree. Guess what? When you cut that wood off, it doesn't stop breathing. Many a piece of furniture has been suspectible to climate changes that make wood do odd things at different times of year. That's life. Just when you think your at that place you've always wanted to be, something happens and you're right back in a rut. I've spoken to older gentlemen who have become millionaires a few times over, only to lose it all. Why? Because life is like that piece of wood: it's ever changing. Yeah we signed a contract. Yeah we are supposed to honor the deal. But no one is supposed to get their ID taken. I lost my cell phone at my job helping out a guest during a hotel valet function. Did the guest return the phone? NO! They decided to use someone else's phone (mine) a rack up over $400 dollars calling Africa. Did the cell phone customer service help me when I told 'em that I lost my phone on my job, doing my job? No, they said I shoulda' called sooner and that nothing could be done 'cause it wasn't their error. They didn't look at my usage pattern or anything. All they said was "So sorry, Charlie!" That's a cell phone. Imagine taking a $400 hit like that with your rent check that the landlord received in a mailslot, but was lost somehow by the office? You know you made the payment, but because they don't have "proof" the onus is on you. Same thing for a car payment. I've been down that road recently on a newly purchased vehicle. Wasn't told when the first payment was due and never got a payment book from the lender. I was told I'd get a call from the lender andnever did until they called and said I was "in collections" on my first car payment. How can you be late on anything when you're never told when to be there or when to respond?
R.W., those are just examples from my life recently. I should be way ahead of the game here money wise, but due to some unscrupulous person finding my phone and running up several hundred bucks in phone calls and an inept supposed rebutable car dealer and the finance outfit they used, I'm way down from where I should be. Fortunately, I don't have to get any Payday loans. But had these 2 events hit at a time when the money wasn't "right," who knows what I'd have to do. But that's life and it happens to the majority of us. My car payment is $400 each month. The phone charge is $400. That's 800 bills that you didn't count on having to pay at a time when you thought things were gravy. But now you're behind. That's why drives you to predatory places like a pdl store. We don't go 'cause we won't to bilk someone out of their money. We go because we followed the letter of the law with another company, but they chose to no honor their word.