It never fails, just when finances are their tightest it seems that something turns up. The car breaks down, the dishwasher stops washing or the kids need a tooth taken care of. It can be hard enough to stretch the family budget to make ends meet, and then add in an unexpected expense and soon you can find yourself with a serious cash crunch and payday is nowhere in sight.
Each year, millions of people take advantage of payday loans from a relatively new industry that was formed to help solve a problem the big banks couldn’t (or wouldn’t): loaning small amounts of money to people for a very short period of time. Traditionally, small loans (typically anything below $5,000 in the banking industry) simply were not profitable. Payday loan companies came along to help fill that void and provide a quick, convenient and easily accessible service to fill the niche that the big banks wouldn’t touch.
Everyone at one time or another needs a small amount of cash to get through a crisis. The last thing many people want to do is ask relatives or friends for the money, and more often than not using credit card cash advances can trigger an avalanche of...