storefront payday hell

Storefronts are legal because they need a business license to operate from an office-but with that being said, you should list out your loans, because we would be able to see if any of them offer an Extended Payment Plan. This would allow you to make 4 equal payments of what you owe to the lender. As long as you don't default from these arrangements, collections will cease by
the lender. If you do default however, all bets are off. I just noticed that you did list your loans, and I do know for a fact that Advance America offers an EPP. (I did it myself, lol). Possibly Cash Net does as well, but I would call their corporate offices to find out.

They are all storefront loans that I spoke about in my first post on this thread.

thanks everyone.. I truly appreciate any help I can get.
1) Advance America
2) Check Into Cash
3) Advanced Financial - (+200 installment loan)
4) Turbo Cash
5) Cash 1
6) Cash City
7) Speedy Cash
8) Cash Express

After writing out all of these and figuring out just how much money I have been spending -- most of these are over a year old!!!! It just makes me feel so stupid and irresponsible. I vow to NEVER stop at one of these places again no matter what happens!!!! Thanks again for your help. Tomorrow is the biggest problem - 5 of the 8 are due then... first time I'm not even going to have the money to keep rolling them over!!!

What are the names of the companies, may make it easier to tell you how to deal with them. Some do things differently - they are all legal if they are store fronts in the state you live.

no legit consolidation/settlement company works with legal pdls as helpinaz stated.they will work with you,but you need to communicate with them though.that is key.

Even with legal lenders you can still revoke their ACH authorization to protect your bank account. You need to be on the phone with them - not store directly - you need to be contacting the corp offices and see what you can work out. Have some kind of plan in you head of! Most of them should offer an extended repayment plan. How much are each of them for?

Or does anyone know of a credit counseling companies or debt settlement companies that works with store front pdl's. One that won't rip you off? I've heard nightmares about them too, just don't know who to trust.

Please list out your lenders/how much borrowed/ how much paid to date and maybe someone will be able to assist you a little further.

Sometimes we have to stop the cycle of insanity in order to dig out. Usually storefront lenders are legal through some loophole in your state's payday laws. With that being said, I can only give you insight to my experience when I found myself in your shoes. I'm in Texas -- I had 2 tribal pdls and one store front. When I was facing eviction and bankruptcy, I had to put an end to the madness so this is what I did -- I used the template letter under the sticky "dealing with unlicensed lenders" and changed it up to meet my needs and sent it off to the two tribal lenders (Plain Green and Western Sky/CashCall). I also contacted the storefront (legal lender) and explained the situation and let them know that I was going to default -- they explained that once I officially defaulted it would be sent to collections. I understood that and decided I could live with that. I followed up with a letter to the storefront lender explaining the situation and revoking ACH. I secured my bank account so that I could stop the madness -- this was a huge relief for me as every time I got paid these fees and subsequent overdrafts took my entire paycheck. (For some background -- on the two tribal loans, I had way overpaid the interest and had more than paid back the principal. On the legal storefront lender, I had paid fees in the amount equal to the principal borrowed.) I never received a response from Plain Green directly but over the course of the next few months, the account was marked as paid in full online and on my credit report it was marked as paid in full with a zero balance -- I feel like I got lucky compared to others on this one but I took it. As for CashCall (WS loan), they sent me their normal "this loan is legal blah blah blah" trash and I kept fighting and fighting as evidenced by all of my posts on this board. As for the legal storefront lender -- they did send my account to collections and it was placed on my credit report. One important thing to note here -- once I officially defaulted, it stopped the fees/interest from incurring so the amount due was the principal plus the fee that was due at the time of default. Once I received the dunning letter from the collection agency, I sent the C&D to only communicate in writing. They honored this and I never heard from them via phone or letter. It did remain on my credit report but to me getting back on my feet was the most important thing. When I had finally gotten to a more stable place and had saved up the money, I contacted them to settle. They offered me the option of paying a lesser amount and it would remain on my credit report as a paid collection account, or I could pay the full amount that was due at the time of default (principal plus one fee) and they would delete it from my credit report. I opted to do the PFD. They were good to their word and it was gone within 48 hours. As a single mom, I understand desperation. BUT I have learned a very valuable lesson in all of this and wish that my state would close the loopholes that allow these lenders to operate. These types of loans create way more problems than they help as you can see by these boards. Moral of the story here is that once I took action to stop the insanity and the cycle, I was able to get back on my feet and dig myself out without resorting to bankruptcy. I can now say that 2 years later I am out of the cycle, I have restored my credit report (it was a very long fight but I got WS/CC off of my reports) and I am now in a position where I am sending my son off to college and just got approved for a mortgage. It's tough, it won't be easy, it will take some time, but if you are serious about changing your situation, please stop the insanity. I can tell you once I did, I could breath easier, I could sleep and I wasn't as stressed out because I knew my paycheck would be available to buy groceries and pay my electric bill. Hope this helps.

Paul - I don't know if Teletrak keeps that information or not....would be very interesting to know if they did. I recently pulled a copy of my teletrak consumer report and none of the payday loans I have ever taken out whether storefront or online were anywhere on it. Not on ChexSystems either.

If you can list them out, some of us may have experience in dealing with them and it will help us to help you.

Okay - looking at TN payday lending laws the maximum amount is $500. Are any of these over that amount? It would help if you listed out the amount borrowed along with the amount you have paid - might help us to determine the angle. I have experience with Speedy Cash. Once we have all the details we can give you better advice. We have all been in this situation or we wouldn't be here so no reason to be embarrassed.

1) Advance America - $500.00 -- Business with them for over a year... payoff and renew etc.

2) Check Into Cash $488.75 -- pay off and renew-- 8 months or so.

3) Advanced Financial - (+200 installment loan) - 500.00 - payoff and renew...Over a year

4) Turbo Cash - 500.00 - payoff and renew for over a year

5) Cash 1 - $490.00 - payoff and renew... over a year

6) Cash City - $460.00 - payoff and renew - over a year

7) Speedy Cash - 500.00 - payoff and renew - newest one probably about 4 months.

8) Cash Express - $488.75 - payoff and renew.. this one I have had for almost 2 years!!!

Normally I just go in and pay it off and take it right back out. These have all been on 2 week increments, so 60-70 dollars every two weeks each. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that $500.00 initial loan has cost me $3000. (the one I've had the longest) I would try to pay it down, but then something would happen and I would have to get it right back out. Then something would happen like car repairs etc, (which is what started the whole thing over a year ago when I took most of these out) One of my kids would get sick and I've have to miss a day of pay, then I wouldn't have the money to pay everything to roll over so I'd take out another one to pay to just roll over that one.

Although you don't have a Check n Go loan, I had one, I closed my bank account before the loan was due and it went into default. I contacted the store told them I had issues with my bank account and was forced to shut it down. The store gave me 30 days to pay and the interest stopped. I paid like $250 of the $600 I owed in the 30 days. After that I found the phone number on line to the corporate office. Call corporate offices, not customer service or collection. They settled my account for one payment if $165.45. And it was done paid off. Didn't even pay the full $600, they settled immediately, no fight they gave me the settlement amount. Your best bet is to do this with all them. Find corporate phone numbers for all loans then shut you bank account down. If be surprised if all wouldn't settle for less than you owe.

i thought teletrack is the database pdl's can access to see how many pdl's a person has.if the storefront lent knowing the person has more pdl's than the law allows they could be reported to the CFSA for violating the best practices.

Can anyone out there help me with ideas on how to get these paid off? If I had to default on this, how long would it take for it to get to the point of suing me? I was wondering if maybe I tried to work out payment arrangements with these one at a time if that would help. I just really don't know what to do. I barely bring home enough to pay just the interest. Any ideas or suggestions would be very helpful.

Mom of three, thank you so much for sharing your story. This is what I love about this site: when we help each other. With that being said, although it's good states have laws limiting the number of PDL's you can have at one time, what they don't do is enforce it as evidenced by this thread. If there had been some database in effect that the storefronts could use, perhaps this could have happened?

I sent the C&D to only communicate in writing.

FYI...there is no verbiage in the FDCPA allowing you to request this....it is all or nothing. Either they can communicate with you are they can't. As a general rule, a cease and desist could result in you being sued as the creditor has lost their ability to communicate/negotiate with you.

You will want to start with revoking their ACH authorization, - I would also recommend shutting down your old bank account and open a new one not linked in any way to the old one. Then start with calling the corp offices on all of these and address setting up extended payment plans. You will more than likely not be able to do all at once - so have a plan in mind when you call them. Most will make it be in collection to work with you but that is okay, if you have your old account secure and the new one open not linked in any way to the old one. Your money will be safe and you can work out a plan that will work for you and be done with them.
The problem arises from not communicating with them, yes they will want their money, but if you have a plan of action then they will work with you usually. You want to communicate - because they can and will sue. They can be included in a BK, but that would be a last resort and only if you have other debt that could be included to give you a fresh start.