Online Payday Loans

Government-knows-best bureaucrats would have us believe that payday lenders “prey on the poor and uneducated.”

A payday loan shop employee, on the other hand, told us that most of their customers are educated, make over $30,000 a year and (ironically) work for the government.

We decided to do a demographic study of online payday loan consumers to see where the truth really lies. Let’s take a quick look at the gender, age, household income, ethnicity and household education of visitors to a popular online payday loan website…
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“Fifteen is the magic number… Once it gets below $15, the attractiveness of the product goes away exponentially, given the fact that loan losses can be quite significant.”

Equity analyst Daniel O’Sullivan believes that a payday loan shop must charge a minimum of $15 per $100 borrowed to remain profitable…
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GoFastCash was one of the most popular payday loan sites in our list of lenders (based on overall pageviews on our site).

It was among the highest rated payday lenders as well (based on visitor ratings).

Their price of $15 per $100 borrowed was also among the lowest on our Compare Lenders page, but was their price too low?

It has come to our attention that GoFastCash’s URL no longer resolves properly. Worse yet, it seems to be a forced redirect to a suspicious site…
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Our popular article Five Six Payday Loan Laws that Hurt Consumers has been updated…
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“The Board anticipates that the maximum charges established by this Order will result in some, if not many, payday lenders exiting Manitoba, and acknowledges that such a result will bring transitory hardship to some payday loan borrowers who will either have to establish an alterative source of credit or do without.”

According to Maximum Charges for Payday Loans, a report released by the Manitoba Public Utilities Board, the Board expects that their recently imposed rate cap of $17 per $100 borrowed (to a maximum of $500) will drive many payday lenders out of business and cause hardship to borrowers…
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We have updated our privacy policy…
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“This analysis suggests that… the payday lending industry has now fundamentally transformed the financial services sector catering to lower income Americans. Moreover, our findings should serve as conclusive proof that conservative Christian Americans are a prime demographic target of the payday lending industry.”

Christopher Lewis Peterson and Steven M. Graves came to this fascinating conclusion in a paper entitled Usury Law and the Christian Right: Faith Based Political Power and the Geography of the American Payday Loan Regulation.

Although the paper itself is due to be released this spring, a draft copy of the full report and raw data (including detailed maps) are available online…
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Compare Cash Loans (CompareCashLoans.com) is an objective comparison of unsecured cash loan options.

Using the site, you can compare short-term, small-dollar cash loans offered by P2P lending services, credit unions, utilities (in the form of late payment fees), banks (in the form of overdraft “protection”) and, of course, payday loans.

The site compares loans by amount, duration, fee and APR (Annual Percentage Rate) making it an extremely useful tool to help borrowers make better loan decisions…
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“It’s why neighborhoods with lower median incomes - such as Norfolk’s Berkley and Portsmouth’s Brighton/Prentis Park - have no payday lenders, while Portsmouth’s solidly suburban subdivisions along Portsmouth Boulevard near Chesapeake Square Mall have a cluster of them.”

The Virginian-Pilot staff writer Meghan Hoyer found that payday lenders target middle-class neighborhoods and avoid poor areas of Portsmouth…
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“Sometimes [a payday loan] is your only option. I respect the fact that they’re there when you need them. You have bills, and you have to pay them. But I have never recommended this to anyone. You can’t catch up.”

Payday loan consumer Tasnuva Ahmed, who has been using cash advance loans regularly for two years, shares her experiences and offers some advice for would-be borrowers…
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