“Have money in your bank account by tomorrow!” “Get the money you need in as little as 24 hours!” Payday loans seem like the lifesaver that many people need when life throws them into the deep end. Payday loan companies are found all over the Internet. Preying on desperate individuals, they promise easy money fast. With a friendly demeanor and promising quick results, they pull you in with words that you need to hear.
You don’t realize that sharks are attacking you until your next payday arrives. Suddenly you’re drowning in the same water that you were swimming in only a couple of weeks ago. That payday loan company who saved you from your financial crisis just days ago has now pulled out a huge chunk of your pay check to pay back the money that you borrowed.
Oh yes, the interest rate is somewhere around 600%! Yet, no worries! They will be happy to lend you money again, even more this time since you were such a great customer. So starts the vicious cycle in which payday loan companies catch the unsuspecting public every day.
Payday Loan Companies
How do I know this? Obviously these payday loan companies don’t tell customers this when lending them money. I was one of those drowning, desperate people. The circumstances of how I came to a point of desperation echo many women in this country. I had been married to the same man for twenty years and lived in security and comfort.
While the marriage wasn’t a happy one, I had never thought that I would find myself struggling to make ends meet. Yet, due to an unexpected turn of events a few years after the divorce, I found myself sitting in front of my computer trying to pay all my bills and not having enough money to cover everything. Credit cards had been maxed out. IRA tapped out and all other means of liquid assets evaporated. This is how I began my journey into the mad vortex of payday loans.
No Happy Ending
I wish I could say that there is a happy ending to this story. I am pulling myself slowly out of the payday loan vortex. With the help of a debt consolidation company, I have settled most of my payday loans but not without consequences. Those companies who didn’t require a credit check just as quickly reported my non-payments.
Was I warned about using payday loans? I have to honestly say I was. On the website of every payday loan company that I visited was a small paragraph warning that these types of loans were not a long term solution. Should I have heeded this warning – absolutely! However, it seems to me that making funds available easily and quickly to desperate people in it is unethical and payday loan companies should be held accountable. What’s the moral of my story? Payday loans are NOT the answer! They say that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Believe me, payday loans are just that!