Payday Loans ~ Do they take advantage of the poor?

Ok, I am the manager of a Payday Advance company. I've been working in this industry for several years and am sick and tired of the media blaming us for people filing bankruptcy and calling us "scam artists." In the Ocala Star Blunder yesterday they featured an article. You can read it here.

Several of the statements do not pertain to Florida at all and some of it is insane.

First of all, we charge a 10% fee of the amount you are borrowing plus a $5 state fee per transaction. In Florida you can only have one payday loan out at a time and must wait at least 24 hours from re-borrowing. Other states allow you to take out a payday advance at every store in town and there's where the problem lies.

Several years ago when I was living in Pennsylvania on my own for the first time and didn't know how to budget my money, I had to take out a few advances. These companies didn't force me to borrow money. They certainly didn't hold me at gunpoint either. I went of my own free will and borrowed the money. I was happy to be able to take care of some bills and was always sure to pay off my advance on time. I only ended up taking a handful of advances and didn't get stuck in a cycle of repeating it as many do.

The media keeps writing stories about how we target the poor and make it so they can never be free of us. Well that's certainly not true! I have several customers who only borrow when they make a mistake in their checkbook and think they'll bounce a check. Paying us $35 to borrow $300 is a lot cheaper than bouncing 2 checks at $40 a pop! It's the banks that really are the rackets! They charge so much money when you bounce a check and you can't do a darn thing about it.

Before calling this kind of industry scam artists, look at the facts. We are operating under the law and we do NOT force anyone to take an advance from us! How are we any different than a pawn shop which now charges almost 50% to get your items back!

If you don't want a payday advance, don't come here but I'd sure appreciate it if people would stop using us as the evil giant that's forcing the poor into debt!