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Amaranth

Hello everyone,

I actually came across this forum while doing a search for yet ANOTHER payday loan to take out. I have read through these forums for hours and I am certain now that taking out another payday loan is not the answer- but maybe the kind folx here will have some helpful advice for me. It is only days away from the dreaded "payday", and I have been losing sleep and have been depressed because I am in so over my head I don't know what to do.

My story really goes back to a couple of years ago, when my 14-year old car was on it's last legs. At the time, I was new to credit, so I only had one simple little card from Capital One. Well, my car needed a new engine. I was looking at $2700 just for the repair. With no established credit history, no one would give me a loan...except Cashcall. So Cashcall enters into the picture. Well, eventually, Cashcall payments got too difficult to keep up with, so I took out a loan with QuickClick Loans. Pretty soon those two loan payments were starting to pull me under. Just then, like a miracle, I received a huge work advancement, and my monthly income went from $1400 a month to $4000. But I completely misused and abused my Godsend. Instead of wisely paying off those terrible loans, I found I suddenly had money to spend! I bought myself lavish things I had always wanted, and bought gifts for my family. Pretty soon I was living paycheck to paycheck, but still getting the bills paid, with a little help from payday loans.

Then I was injured at work, and for liability reasons, was removed from work for 2 months, during which I received NO reimbursement. Any small amount of money I had put aside quickly got spent on bills. So I kept taking out more and more payday loans to keep the loans paid, to pay the bills, and to pay for more payday loans. Altho I was never reimbursed, the company's doctor released me back to work, and altho I was making $4000 a month again, I was more in debt than ever before, because everything I had was borrowed- at this rate, I've probably borrowed against paychecks from next year! I'm so deep!

I am completely ashamed to say that I have so many payday loans, I don't remember how many I have, exactly who they are all with, and how much I still owe and how much I have already paid. I am so humiliated and ashamed and angry with myself. I had a perfect chance to lead a very decent life with relatively little debt, but I completely blew it.

I have considered bankruptcy, but here is the catch and why I need your help....

I have perfect credit. Oh no, no bank or decent lender will give me a loan because my debt to income ration is too high, but I have ZERO delinquencies, ZERO collections, and ZERO negatives. It just seems a shame to throw in the towel and file bankruptcy when I have worked so hard to keep my credit clean. However, it is almost Friday, and I know for certain I cannot pay all my bills + my payday loans.

So my question is, what can these companies do to hurt my credit? I just can't keep up with them all. So if I just don't pay them ( for instant, the storefronts ) or close my bank account, what kind of power do these payday loan companies have over my credit report? This is also the reason why I am kind of leery about debt consolidation- doesn't that appear on your credit report, and isn't that considered unfavorable to creditors?

I need to start paying down my debt. I have already taken necessary steps. I have applied for a second job, and I have already cut back on groceries and entertainment- anything to increase the cash flow. I am DETERMINED to pay my credit card debts down and pay off that horrible, evil CashCall and QuickClick Loan- but the only thing holding me back are these awful payday loans. They suck up my paychecks as soon as my workplace deposits them.

I am going to list storefront and internet Payday loans I currently have to the best of my ability. I appreciate any and all help and advice. I just want to lead a financially repsonsible life. I NEVER want to be in this position again. All the luxuries in the world are not worth this.

*I live in California

Due this Friday:

( Storefront ):
Check into Cash - $255 loaned, $300 due
Advance America - $255 loaned, $300 due
Ca Budget Finance - $255 loaned, $300 due
Cash 1 - $255 loaned, $300 due
California Check Cashing - $255 loaned, $300 due

( Internet ):
Thinkcash.com - $1750 loaned, $94.00 due. Current balance about $1724
First Bank of Delaware - $1500 loaned, $318.31 due, current balance uncertain, but have only made 2 payments so far
500fashcash - $350 loaned, $105 due
Its My Payday/National Oppurtunities - $500 loaned, $125 due ( first payment )
Cash First LLC - $300 loaned, $90 due ( first payment )
Instant Cash Loan Till Payday/ MTE Financial - $400 loaned, $75 due, current balance of loan principal is $250

So please, someone help me and advise me to what my options are and what I should do to start getting out of this mess and to start taking my paychecks back! ( Actually, writing all these numbers down has made me face it all, but has made it even more terrifying! )

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:10 am Subject:

Please do not feel ashamed. We have all been where you are now. You have come to the right place, we do not judge here, but we help you get out of this mess. I see you are in CA. I will post the laws for your state. On your store fronts, if they are members of the CFSA they must give you an extended payment plan. EPP. You need to go in person and request this, and it must be done prior to defaulting. It allows you to pay in 4 installments with no intrest accruing.Please try to figure out and post how much in total you have repaid to each lender, That is important.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:12 am Subject:

Amaranth · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:27 am Subject:

Hello- thank you for a swift response. I did look over the laws for my state in the "Payday Loan Help Wiki" section, but I'm not quite savvy to what it all means. I see you can only have 1 loan at a time- it makes me wonder how these places ( at least the storefronts ) kept allowing me to take out more. Don't they access Teletrack each time?

With that information, I'm still not quite sure how to make it work for me. As for finding out which ones are part of the CFSA, how and where do I find that information?

Whereupon it says "criminal action prohibited", what exactly does that mean? Does that mean they cannot sue/collections/arrest warrant, etc? As for all the storefronts, those loans are for 2 weeks only. So each time I borrow $255, the $300 is immediately due 2 weeks later. I have to reloan in order to get $255 back again, so those loans carry no balance. They are paid off every 14 days- I just simply reloan them. It's the internet based ones that are all running on those killer interest and rollover charges.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:31 am Subject:

All of your store fronts are members of the CFSA except for Ca. Budget. I just checked for you.

Amaranth · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:46 am Subject:

Thank you so very much! A few of those storefronts I have been a customer of for 2-3 years without any defaults or problems, so hopefully they will work with me. I'm not exactly sure how I approach them about this. I'm sorry, but this situation has me so overwhelmed I literally need someone to hold my hand. How do I approach them, what do I say? How does the process work for installment payments?

And my biggest fear factor...will this in any way show up on my credit report?

I am working on tackling the most exact numbers I can to post on my how much I've paid to the internet companies- those are going to be the biggest, most difficult monsters to tackle, I can tell already. Will I have to close my bank account? I have a second non-linked bank account that I can safely move my paycheck over to before the ACH's hit, but I bank with BOFA and they are notorious for those $35 overdraft fees. How should I start approaching that situation? I can safely move money out of that account and into another, but it will be a couple of weeks to set up a direct deposit of my paychecks into the new account and to make sure all my important credit bills are updated with new debit information for the new account before I shut down the current one.

Sorry if I am getting ahead of myself.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:52 am Subject:

If they are members, and they are, they have to evoke the EPP. Dont be ashamed, just speak to them and tell them that that is what you need to do. This is no longer about them, it is about you.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:00 am Subject:

Amaranth welcome and know there are great people here and wonderful shoulders to lean on....I am new myself and I was like you desperate for help or another PDL--i accidentally found this and posted my situation...that morning my coffee looked much better than my life and life for me was heading towards suicide....good luck and welcome.....

oh by the way the first Saturday after posting my teenager and I slept in...we were getting up at 4 and 5--7 am rolled around and we were just thinking about getting up.....

Amaranth · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:52 am Subject:

Okay, starting to go thru bank statements to find out exactly what to date I have paid on some of the internet loans. Thus far:

MTE Financial/Instant Cash Loan Till Payday = Loan of $400. I have currently paid $945 towards it.

(Omigod, when I break down the numbers, it really is scary! I can't believe I've been doing this to myself....)

First Bank of Delaware - loan of $1500. Have paid $636.62 and loan isn't scheduled to be paid off until 5/23!

500FastCash loan = loan of $350. Have paid $315. Still have one "rollover/automatic advance of $105 left before it starts the $50 increment pay-downs )

Its My Payday/National Oppurtunities - $500 loaned, no payments made yet. Payment of $125 scheduled for 3/14

Cash First LLC - $300 loaned, no payments made yet, payment of $90 scheduled for 3/14

Help!

Amaranth · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:55 am Subject:

@lovedalehpbear

Thank you very much. I am so overwhelmed and so frightened about what is going to happen this Friday/payday. I am SO glad I stumbled across this website. I am already learning things and the friendly community is already starting to help me calm down a little.

Still freaking out, but I am so thankful for the support!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:03 pm Subject:

We've all been there.... I thought I was going to loose my mind. That is the true shame in these PDL's. The fee's that they charge are so high that people tend to have to take out another PDL just to pay the other PDL's fees. Thus the "snowball effect". The other shame is that a lot of the PDL's are owned by the same company and you might end up with several outstanding loans owned by the same people. If they were responsible lenders they would see that there was a problem.

Last night I was thinking that they wouldn't be so bad if the fees were not open ended. If you could borrow $300 and them pay back even 6 $90 fees and be done then they would have made a gracious plenty off of you but you know after that 6th payment you are out from under the obligation. It is no more than sheer greed on someones part to keep this loan sharking up.

So rest easy... it will take some time but you will make it through. We all either have or are starting to. And the group here is wonderful to work with. I feel like I have made several friends where a month ago I felt I had no friends.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:06 pm Subject:

One more thing. My motto is "They Can't Eat Me" so just tell yourself that when they are calling you. They can bug you to death but they can't eat you!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:43 pm Subject:

Thank you angell Smile

Anywise, I am reading more and more through the forums, and I came across one topic that stated that MTE ( whom one of my loans is thru ) is illegal, and accordingly, I am only responsible for the initial $400 I was loaned? I still haven't paid that damn loan off, and I've already paid $945. If all that is the case- what do I do? Am I just out of the money? Can I legally try to make them cease and desist withdrawing further payments? How should I be handling this?

It looks to me like I need to start preparing my "safe" checking account and start putting in to have my paycheck deposited there and updating my legit credit companies to the change, because it looks to me like I'm going to have to close my primary checking account down in the near future.

I am so glad I purposely "fudged" the phone numbers of all my references on these loans...

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:47 pm Subject:

The only way any of these companies will stop debiting is to close your account. If you can not do that you need to put a hard debit block on the account. Stopping payment will nit work. These places have so many names they will just go in under a different name.Change your direct deposit to go into a new account. They will not stop until the account is closed. Yes you grossly overpaid them. I am not sure if anyone has gotten a refund from MTE , but I would doubt it. They are just so illegal.

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:51 pm Subject:

The advice I had gotten was the same you will see on many posts and that is to close your checking account. You will need to make sure that the account is closed and that ACH withdraws will not force the account reopen. With my bank, BOA, they closed it and change the code to credits only. That way no debits are able to get through.

I overpaid MTE as well, not by nearly as much as you, and I sent them the letter. Within a week I received an e-mail from their compliance department offering to waive the remaining $30 fee if I paid them the $100 towards the principal. I had paid them $465 on a $200 loan already. PDL's are illegal in my state. I didn't respond to their "generous" offer. Then they e-mailed me letting me know that they were turning me over to collections. I told them I will forward their e-mail, as I had the previous e-mail, to my AG. I haven't heard anything back from them yet. I don't think they have called any of my references.

I also sent two other letters out and one I had pverpaid and one I still feel like I owe $240. I have not heard anything from these yet and it has been a month.

Kashzan helped me the entire way through this and is a great source of information. I couldn't have done this without Kash!!!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:55 pm Subject:

I'm sorry if I keep repeating the same questions, but I am trying to understand everything to make sure I don't put myself in a position worse off.

If I close down my bank account to keep companies like MTE loans out, what kind of retalliation can they take? Can they send me to collections? Can they negatively ding my credit report? Or are they just empty threats and bullying and will eventually go away because sadly, they're getting new customers to rip off every day?

Of all the internet companies I listed that I currently have loans through, are any legit to where they can and will honor payment plans/work on payments with you?

Do I just close my account on these companies, or do I send them cease and desist letters first? I want to know the exact steps I need to take and in exactly what order because I don't want to shut down my bank account, and then end up being legally liable for now "cheating" these companies out of money I had signed contracts saying I would pay them.

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