Wednesday 31 October 2012

Payday Loans - Saving Lives or Ending Lives?

By Steve Morrison


You have probably seen the glowing night signs of payday loan lenders many times in your local communities or surrounding communities. The payday loans offered from these businesses help many struggling people in need of fast cash, but they are also differentiated by other types of loans by some controversial standards:

1. Most do not demand a credit check and will never report to the credit bureaus.

2. Most times, these loans are extended in the absence of any collateral.

3. Proving the existence of a current job delivering paychecks is all the paperwork enforces in many cases. Obviously, this is where this loan type earned the name 'payday loan'.

4. The majority of these loans take twenty-four hours or less to obtain. Internet-based lenders will often make direct deposits into the borrower's bank account within a day of application. When borrowing from local services, it is not unheard of for borrowers to receive their money in just a couple hours or even less.

5. Consumers do not have much time to make good on these loans. Typically, a loan will be paid back on the customer's very next payday, whether that is one or two weeks from the date of borrowing the loan.

6. They are notorious for having very high interest rates.

7. These loans have a predatory nature, since multiple loans can be compiled if the borrower is unable to pay the first one on the required due date. One minor loan has the potential to multiply to an unmanageable debt that is difficult if not nearly impossible to make good on.

Many people are putting up a fight against the morality of these loans, since they do come with such oppressive interest rates and do not give borrowers much time to return the money. Many argue the lenders know that the desperate people drawn to these loans will be unable to return them on their next pay cycle, so they are being taken advantage of. Consumers typically end up on the line for large amounts of money and it quickly transforms into a debt that they are continuously paying down weekly or monthly for an extended period of time.

Yet, if you engage many customers who use payday loan services, they are complete lifesavers. For instance, these loans are typically used by people about to lose their electricity or other important services to their home. You can even reference the college students who look to these loans to get their tuition paid at times. These lending companies have lines of people waiting for cash, and for good reason. Many people would have major struggles if they did not have the chance to take out these loans.

There are other people who believe the problem rests with the borrowers, and not the lenders. There is no question that the people drawn to this type of loan are those who legitimately need the money fast. They would not otherwise take out a loan with a high interest rate and which has to be delivered back entirely within a week or two. Whether you label these loans predatory or not comes down to what stance you take against the borrowers:

1. They are blameless poor people who are backed into a corner and given no alternative but to take out a loan with unjust terms in order to make it through to brighter days.

2. These borrowers are impulsive and are not responsible, and many do not even need the loans they take out.

Many view the fact that payday loans tend to pile up because the first one is not paid as agreed as a sign that borrowers are not acting responsibly when they take them out. In comparison, there are some who say these people are the victims who have no other possibilities to survive.

When you look closely at the data, there is a bit of both sides of the coin in the mix. You cannot deny that some people get into loans with irresponsible intentions and without any ability to repay according to the terms. In some situations, they do take the loans for impulsive buys that have nothing to do with essential human survival.

On the other hand, there are some people who feel they have no other option but to go for this type of loan. These customers represent the single parents, young adults with three jobs, and war veterans who honestly cannot make it without a loan here and there. Sincere struggles lead these people to accept predatory loans. What begins as one harmless loan often turns into dozens of loans and thousands of dollars owed to the lender, just because they could not repay the first loan on time.

Essentially, payday loans can turn small problems into even worse problems that are more unbearable than the original circumstances. There are struggles either way! Whether they accept the payday loan out or not, they are going to end up going through rough times.

Now that all of the details have been explained, where do you stand on these loans? Are they opportunities that some people can use responsibly? Or are they life-overs for borrowers who cannot afford them?




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