I have 6 payday loans in Maryland

Hi dtamika2,

Check out this page which has a lot of detail about closing your account.

There is a small loan rate cap of 33% in Maryland.

But I would think that is only for licensed companies.

chrys

You are correct that PDLs are illegal in MD. You can not get in trouble for closing your account. Do so ASAP.

All the loans are illegal which means you only owe the principle.

You can go here and learn more about dealing with illegal lenders.

Thank you for your replies. I was wondering, they can still of course call my job to try to collect right? Even when I pay the full principle off? Is it easy to do myself or should I go through attorneys to take care of this matter for me? For example, if I do this myself, close my account and send them payments to pay the principle off, during the payoff they can't do stuff like warrants for my arrest, sue me, garnish my wages, etc., right? They can say it to scare me, but isn't true right?

Right.

They may call your job but you can explain that you are a victim of fraud, which is not a lie. You can place a wage revocation statement with your work payroll to avoid any issues but illegal PDLs don't usually try to collect that way but better safe than sorry.

Make sure you close your bank account and do not tell the PDLs you are doing it until AFTER it is secure.

They can not arrest you and they can not take you to civil court because they are illegal. They won't dare show their face in a legal court room.

The only thing they will do is threaten or harrass you via email, phone and sometimes mail.

You can do this. A lot of us have and know it is scary but you can do it.

Again make sure your bank account is closed or really secure first. Then send out the letters. Some back off right away and give you a paid in full if you have paid off the principle. Others state they are legal, they are not, but just to let you know they try all sorts of things.

We are always here for advice, questions and support.

If your lenders are operating as CSO's in Maryland (which they ARE allowed to do), they are NOT illegal. You should check on each one to be sure.

RACH is correct some of these may be operating as CSO(Credit Service Organizations) which makes them LEGAL. Are they store fronts or online lenders?

They are online lenders, I just closed my account yesterday...now what...how can I find out if they are CSO's

If I were you first thing Monday morning I would call your States Department of Financial Institutions and ask if any of these companies are licensed then you will know for sure. I know SGQ is not licensed as I dealt with them, they are part of BMG.