News : Easy Payday Loans in Georgia
Payday Loans
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
There's been a steady increase in the number of pay day lenders in the state, and some say that increase, leads to an increase of debt for a growing number of people.
Nearly 12-hundred pay day lending stores in the state offer consumers a chance to write a post dated check for a certain amount until pay day, but consumer advocates say that comes with a high interest rate. Dorothea Bernique, executive director of Increasing H.O.P.E. Financial Training Center says, "It's a vicious cycle. They are then trapped in the process of repaying that loan over and over again, or renewing it is what it's called, so they get hundreds of dollars of interest on a small loan of 500 dollars or 300 dollars. They can pay that money back three or four times over. I think they're no more than organized loan sharks." Bernique says about 70-percent of her clients have that problem. She says, "In especially a lot of our rural towns and counties, they out number the number of banks that are there. They're actually more pay day lenders loan companies, than they are banks in these areas, because again of credit issues and challenges, this is where people go." Bernique says many are feeling the effects of the economy, but says there is a way to break the cycle. She says, "The problem is huge. The economy is having a huge effect on the people that are going into the payday loan company, not knowing how to get out of it. They can actually do a stop payment on the check, or close the account, and then just pay the initial amount of that check back to the organization."
Jamie Fulmer, director of public affairs for Advance America, the largest pay day lending company in the country, said, "It's not a predatory loan. Despite what critics say, our customers are not unsophisticated. They know they have alternatives, they have choices. They use our products to help bridge the gap, because it's less expensive than bouncing a check. Not unlike any other credit products out there, we do have concerns over a small number of customers who do not use this product responsibly, and we have payment plans at no additional fee to help those customers."
Although state lawmakers failed to set regulations for the payday lending industry this year, Bernique says she hopes the push for reform continues. She says, "Hopefully our state legislatures will go back and look at it again and look really really hard at it. The two states around us, both North Carolina and Georgia have actually outlawed them. I think we have a lot of them to come to the state of South Carolina, and our community is falling victim." The bill would have created a database of borrowers and barred them from having more than one loan at a time.
Classes at the Increasing Hope Financial Training Center are offered from 10am to 4pm over ten weeks, and are aimed at helping to address all around financial needs.
Source : http://www.wcbd.com
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