Pay Day Lending

In the late 1990's, my second crappy vehicle had broke down yet again and I needed the money to get my car fixed. I was living on my own and was not about to borrow the money from my parents, so I had heard about a Pay Day Lending company and decided to go try it out. The process was very simple and not time consuming. With my pay check stubs, proper id and references, I was able to walk out of the building with the cash to fix my car. I had borrowed one hundred dollars and had agreed to pay back one hundred and fifteen dollars the next week when my pay check came in.

After getting my vehicle fixed and receiving my pay check I drove to the Pay Day Lending office and paid the one hundred and fifteen dollars, then the question was asked to me if I wanted to rewrite again. I asked what that was and the customer service representative explained that if I could not afford to let go of my hundred dollars, I could rewrite another check dated for my next pay day and pay one hundred and fifteen dollars again. So I thought to myself fifteen dollars is not going to kill me and I did the rewrite.

Months later I was still rewriting and by that time I was stuck in the cycle of paying fifteen dollars twice a month and could not afford to give up one hundred and fifteen dollars for two weeks. Had I known how this program ends up making a person more in debt, I would not have done it. I would have never rewritten the second time . Basically, I ended up rewriting until I was able to get my tax refund and then I paid the debt off. Although I only paid thirty dollars a month I kept doing so for nine months and ended up losing two hundred and seventy dollars which is more than doubled the amount that I had borrowed in the first place.

Currently, in Virginia the delegates are deciding on what the interest rate should be for these Pay Day Lending companies and for how long a customer can utilize this service in one given year. As a former customer, I can say that without the Pay Day loan I would not have gotten my vehicle repaired but I also lost money in the long run, because I decided not to just pay off the loan the previous week. I think that if a person has to come to a Pay Day lending service for money then it is more likely that they will not be able to repay the amount in full within a pay week without falling behind on other bills.