In Defense of Payday Lending

Hi,

I would like to welcome you to this site. I find what you say and your site interesting. Just so you know, you are up for a MAJOR debate on this subject as for as everyone here is, in my surmise, trying to get out of this "Payday Loan" situation they are in including myself. If anything sir/or madam, let us know here how we can pay off our payday loans that is mutualy benificial in a way that maybe we are not aware of. Thank you.

All the Best,
james

You said it James, How about a lower intrest rate or eliminate those stupid fees, that would really help people out.

I would say he has never taken a payday loan nor has he ever talked or read about the experiences of people who have gotten into the trap of PDL's. He is looking at this from the point of view of the government regulating PDL's too much, he is not looking at the damage this industry has caused people. Just look at this forum and see what has happened, and this is only a small percentage of the people who have been preyed upon.

I'm all for less government regulation and less government control, however there are times when regulation is required. There is a reason why all the states in the union are concerned about PDL's and its affect and it has nothing to do with certain policies or the government trying to get too big. Its about the people complaining about PDL's and wanting their elected official to do something about it, just what a democratic government should be doing. The state governments have set up rules and regulations regarding PDL's, however these companies break those laws and hide off shore and use predatory practices to lure people in. Just look at what happens when someone runs into problems and cannot pay their loan anymore, these PDL's will without exception send the collector dogs on you to harass and intimidate you into paying.

These PDL's know exactly what they are doing and they are not doing it for altruistic reasons. There is nothing wrong with wanting to run a business to make money, but these companies purposely prey on people who cannot get a regular loan and try and suck them into the endless cycle of PDL's. They try and take advantage of people because they are going after people that may be desperate for cash.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of "micro" loans or payday loans if done properly and within guidelines and regulations. When you are dealing with loaning people money and especially loaning money to people that don't have the best credit or financial issues you need even more regulation to prevent abuse by these loan companies. Its easy to prey on people who might be in tight financial straights and don't have the best credit because the companies know they will most likely not have the resources to fight them. When people are in a desperate situation they have the tendency not to look at things closely and can be quickly convinced to agree to loans like these. These PDL's know that and prey on that. This website is confirmation of this.

Unfortunately many professors or assistant professors don't spend a lot of time in the real world. This asst. professor only sees this in terms of big government, small government, capatalism, etc. He doesn't see how it really affects people or the widespread abuse of these PDL's. He doesn't even realize that its not just the government and consumer groups that are speaking out against PDL's, its the people that have been taken advantage of by these companies that are speaking out in great numbers. If he lived in the real world he might be able to see that.

I say this asst. professor cannot see the forest through the trees.

I agree

This article is from 2003. They quote North Carolina's average loan. Payday loans are prohibited in NC.

As I see it, the person that wrote this article probably has excellent credit and has never had to go to a pdl place out of desperation and thus sees nothing wrong with pdls or regulating them.

I live in Florida where the industry is closely regulated to protect people from getting into trouble. All lenders are on a network that will show if a person has an outstanding PDL. If they do they can't take a second one. The internet lenders do not care how many you have and are neither on that net as required by law here nor are they even licesned in most cases as they are required. They lend here and break down the whole system that is in place for peoples protection. In Florida if you don't payback a store front they call you as a reminder and will accept arrangements. If you still have trouble paying you are required to go to debt counselling. They do not call and say they only accept whatever. They don't hide there locations and they do not threaten or harass. That is the law here and the IPDLs could care less. Also there is a 10% usury cap that is totally ignored by them. How can anyone defend illegal operations and expect to be taken seriously.

I still say people need to stay away from payday loans regardless of what anyone says. They are too easy to get and can get you in more trouble than a credit card. It seems it never fails, that one will lead to 2 and two will lead to 3 and so on and so on. As stated, these IPDL places don't care how many you have and know they are not following the law. STAY AWAY!!!!