Boy some of the people on here are so high and mighty! Good thing that they have money and will never know what it feels like to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to pay a bill. Sometimes there is nowhere else to ask for help. If a loan vampire is where we have to turn, believe me that is our last resort! If I may add to that, some of you sound so high and mighty and full of yourselves, I'd like to say I hope you never have a hard day/month/week/year in your life when your job just isn't paying the bills and all your "helping" resourses are tapped out. Bless you all and may your good forture never turn bad. For those of us in the real world, things happen when the job doesn't cover all our bills or sickness hits or this that and the other, we need help and we need it fast. Call us short sighted, call us childish for not saving enough, but please don't call us stupid, we did not cause this unforeseen event that landed us in the loan vampire's office. You think we want to be there?! Oh yeah we want to pay $250 on $100 paycheck, boy we sure are managing our money a lot better this way than letting our kids starve or letting our house payement go or groceries go or the next thing. We are NOT stupid people, we are tired, worn out, hopeless, depressed, and at the end of our ropes when we walk into those clutches. I would rather sell a kidney illegally than to have to go to a loan vampire, but if a loan is what it takes, then the extra hours is what I will put in and the things I will go without until it is all paid off.
Those are my personal thoughts and opinions. We are not stupid people, get that throught your heads.

In my experience, it is those with bad credit who know more about credit and loan terms than anyone. We use these places when we need the money, and are generally aware of the exorbitant rates in advance. If we could get loans somewhere else, then we would. Further regulation of this industry will not help us, it will just take away our only option. We do not need your paternalistic protections, we do just fine on our own, but thanks for thinking of us, we appreciate the sentiment.

"it just goes to show that we need to cull the heard and do away with the inept amoung us"

Nice comment dqandhalie. I made the mistake of using one of these companies, as you can read in my other entry below. I will not lower myself to your level and say something as thoughtless as you did. I will only say that I hope you or anyone else does not have to go through what I did. I had nowhere else to go but the bottom of the pit in order to get myself back up to where I am now.

it just goes to show that we need to cull the heard and do away with the inept amoung us.

Although I hate these places, leave it to the government to regulate everything.

"Capitalism works best hand in hand with sensible regulation." We used to regulate public utilites like electric, gas and telephone companies. The proven axiom was that sensible regulation would keep utility rates affordable for everyone. We used to regulate banks. We did not regulate the mafia. At this point I'd recommend an individual would be better off going to the "mob" for a payday loan than to a "payday loan company" because the interest rate one pays to the "mob" will probably be cheaper than one pays to the "payday loan company". No one denys that business should make a profit. But again I say "what blesses one blesses all". What takes unfair advantage of one rips-off all. Sensible regulation has, in the past, worked very well to protect our capitalist system. Take away regulation of things like banks and insurance companies and one gets a total collapse of the financial system because of avarice. How many millions more unemployed will it take before the United States comes to it's senses?

If you need to spend resources to educate people about how bad payday loans can be, why not just regulate the loans in the first place? That's almost like educating kids about the dangers of drugs, yet allowing drugs to be sold down the street after school.

Few people really NEED a payday loan. For those that really are desparate, there are many resources in the community to provide help for whatever it is you need. You just need to ask for help.

Red - You may not be aware just how much we're all taking advantage of the poor, and disadvantaged. Take all the oil pumped in a day, and divide it by the number of people on Earth. We use many times our fair share. Products made in China are cheap because the people work for a couple dollars a day. We consume resources from countries all over the world while their people go hungry. As long as payday companies are required to make full disclosure of their rates I'm inclined to think they should continue to operate freely. The people in this country should know by now the perils of doing business with quick cash outfits. If people don't understand by now then education would be the thing to do.

here's an old cliché theirs a sucker born every minute .

AMEN BELLA & BIGNIK!!

bignik... how can you lose your own clothes in a divorce???

I love the people here who defend loan sharks. What's next, defending torturers? Oh. Right. We have entered a strange time indeed.

AMEN TO BELLA!

I went through an awful divorce. I lost almost everything, including my own clothes. I have never at one point pointed my finger at anyone other than myself. I failed and I suffer, but dang it all folks, UNDERSTAND some people's situations before you crticize the actions of others, especially when it comes to financial responsibility. Especially you rich and famous bloggers from Janesville! This whole issue with high interest pay day loans should be regulated. Remember, us that are striving, working 13-14 hours a day to pay our bills, raise our families, and live under a decent roof deserve some sort or protection too....

What a country. We all demand our rights and freedoms to do as we please. Yet when we make some bad choices, like borrowing from these loan sharks, we want our government to step in and insist that the loan sharks act fairly. Yet when the loan sharks are driven from business, then we'll complain that so many people can't borrow money when they have a need. That's kind of what is happening in the mortgage business right now with the government bailing out the lenders and making them tighten up their lending practices while bemoaning the fact that lenders won't lend money to people who need it due to restrictive lending practices. The search for cosmic justice continues.....

It's amazing how high and mighty some people get. Is it possible to understand that sometimes people end up in unfortunate situations and need some help? I'm not saying people shouldn't be responsible for their own finances. I'm saying let's regulate the system so that it isn't so easy to take advantage of those that have falled on bad times. If you have low income and have to use a payday advance loan (often for emergencies), then those loans are set up so that you never get caught up again. It's a vicious cycle. Some people are ignorant for using them; yes. Others find themselves in situations where they do not have a choice. Janesville people are so incredibly quick to judge; it's sickening.

Why don't we allow crack and heroin to be sold openly for whatever the market will bear? Why should the financial sharks be allowed to feed on the misery of the poor? Capitalism works best hand in hand with sensible regulation. The gold standard should be "what blesses one blesses all" and conversely "what harms one harms all". If I am blessed by doing good then all is well. If I am blessed at the expense of another, at benefiting from the ignorance and poverty of another then am I blessed? No, I am exploiting another's misfortune to advance my own greed. Love thy neighbor as thyself!

its called the "vig" the high interest rates and the payments that accompany them.

I had to use one of these companies once. Here is the short version of my sob story: Bad divorce, bad credit because of the divorce, attorneys ate money, electric bill, kids. I will never do it again. It is hard to get a loan from a bank with no/bad credit. Even though I am paying my past bills slowly and show an effort to get out of the red and have a good job now, I still can't get a loan from a bank for anything. I refuse to go through a bankruptcy because I personally believe that I am where I am because of what I did or didn't do and bankruptcy is the easy way out...but it sure is tempting especially when a friend of mine went through it and got all of these credit offers, etc within 6 months of filing.

Another law to protect the ignorant, and punish the free market business owner. The real rootcause is the lack of educating kids money management. Schools don't mandate kids to learn how to manage money and then the kids become adults and get into financial trouble. I remember when I was just out of high school, I paid cash for a beater car and a friend got a loan for a nice car. Now I have 2 new cars and a house 1/2 paid off and my friend is driving beaters and paying off years of debt. Why?, because my friend did not want to take a finance class to learn about money.

bella - how do these places "prey" on people with low incomes and poor credit? They do not go knocking door to door trying to get people to take out loans. They are not calling randomly from the phone book asking them to come in and take out a loan. These low income/poor credit people walk through the door on their own free will! Obviously with poor or no credit, they have no other option.

About time! I warn my children to stay away from those places!!

As far as holding people accountable for signing on the dotted line, I agree. They should be held accountable. But so should the companies that take advantage of the young, dumb and broke.

Just like the "rent to own" companies. It is crazy what they are allowed to do. I read an article once that talked about someone getting some kind of game system from a place like that.(Notice I didn't pay much attention to it because I can't remember the details) The system cost 300 or 400 dollars to buy at a store and by time the people were taken to court from the rental place they owed over 3000 dollars for the system. Its crazy.

Yeah, heaven forbid we should hold people responsible for their actions (i.e. Signing on the dotted line)

Good - it's time we regulate these sharks that prey on people with low incomes and poor credit.