Filling a financial need

I have taken a payday loan before and it was truly a lifesaver. I don’t know what I would have done without that option. I paid it back in two weeks as I agreed and it cost a heck of a lot less than losing my job if I couldn’t get to work that week.

Tough Cutomer @ 11:41 AM PDT, Apr 14, 2008

An excerpt from a recent Columbia University Journalism Review story: "Likewise, there’s a difference between the Center for Responsible Lending, which has hard-won credibility on lending issues, and something called the Consumers’ Rights League, a heretofore-unknown, self-styled libertarian advocacy group quoted by Forbes. This ersatz “CRL” (same initials; hmm) popped up like a Jack-in-the-box just as the Forbes story ran, and appears to exist for no other purpose than to attack Eakes and promote the payday lending industry." The entire story can be found at: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/forbess_contortions.php

BZV @ 1:10 PM PDT, Apr 9, 2008

Looking at short-term loans from the perspective of an annual percentage rate (APR) is invalid and deceptive. For example, if someone asked you to lend them $100 saying they would give you back $101 tomorrow, you'd probably say "No" because you wouldn't want to risk $100 for just $1 profit. But that's a 365% APR and this example doesn't even consider any cost whatsoever in making the loan. That proves that no APR is intrinsically "high" or "outrageous" as payday loan critics claim. The APR is a statistical tool which is only valid for comparing loans that a consumer has access to. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120485275086518279.html

Jon Schultz @ 1:09 AM PDT, Apr 8, 2008

If payday loans are primarily to middle income borrowers then the US is in bad shape when middle income folks are paying an average of 360% apr.

BC @ 7:37 AM PDT, Apr 7, 2008