About 2 months ago I got a check loan (I know, I know… it was an emergency-type situation.) Rather than pay it off right away like a smart person, I’ve just been paying the financing fee every 2 weeks and renewing the loan. I’ve never been late with a payment. I was under the impression that because I’m paying them a shitload of interest, I could keep doing this until I decide to pay it off. So today, I get my usual reminder call telling me “Your advance is due today, oh, and we need you to bring in the full amount.”
Me: “You mean I need to pay it off? I thought I could renew.”
Them: “No, we just need you to bring in the actual cash we lent you so we can renew the loan. We’ll give it right back to you. By law, we can only continue it for so long, and then we need to count it as a new loan.”
Me: “So, I need to bring in the money, you’ll take out the usual amount and give me the rest back? That’s pointless.”
Them: “Yup. Do you have anyone you can borrow it from?”
Me: “Yes, you!”
I would just bring it in, except
My cat is sick this week, which means I have to take it to the vet.
My boyfriend was deployed, so I get to pay all of my utilities, phone bill, etc. instead of half.
All of the above bills need to be paid this week.
I have no one right now who can lend the money to me.
Now, due to how cool my job is, I can make as much money as I want, depending on how much I want to work. If I work very hard, I can make the loan amount in 2 days. It would be deposited into my account in five days. Cool, eh? The only problem? I need to know at least a week in advance what I need to pay!! You telling me to bring in the money the day before does me no good! How many people who get these types of loans have the loan amount just sitting there? If I had it sitting around, don’t you think I would just pay it off? Why didn’t you tell me that I can only renew for x amount of times?
I looked over the contract I signed to get the damn thing. There’s nothing in there about this.
I don’t know what I’m gonna do. What a shitty week.
How increadibly lame. If you had the exact amount of the loan just lying around, why would you need the loan??
This reminds me of the time I went to rent a car. At the time, I didn’t have any credit cards as I had cruddy credit. So I opted for the cash deposit instead of the credit card deposit to secure the rental. Well. Apparently they had instituted a credit check policy for those who opted for a cash deposit.
The hell?
Usually, if you’re going to do a cash deposit vs. a credit card deposit it’s because you don’t have credit cards. There are many reasons for not having credit cards the most common being either an insufficiant or a bad credit history. Two reasons why you would *fail a credit check. * It didn’t matter if I handed them the cash for the deposit, if I didn’t pass the check I couldn’t rent the car.
So basically, they were saying that there were deposit options for those who had either bad or insufficiant credit, but not if they couldn’t pass a credit check.
I’m guessing this may be a state requirement, the intent of which is to get you out of a shitty arrangement with the loan company, paying them outrageous interest on a loan every week. I won’t comment on whether it’s a good rule or not. The thought probably was that if you can bring the cash in, you probably can go ahead and repay the loan and not incur any more interest.
That said, and I recommend using these loans as little as possible, can you go to another loan office (different company) and get the money from them? Borrow money from Peter to pay Paul, if you will. There seem to be more than one of these in every town.
Lezlers, this is not surprising. A company would not be very wise to rent a car to someone who does not have the means to pay any possible incurred damages. The deposit is just a token amount; they need to see proof that you would be able to pay more if necessary. The cash option is not meant for people with bad credit. It is meant for people who either don’t have or don’t wish to use (for whatever reason) their credit card.
Joyfulgirl, that’s really strange, but maybe JonScribe is right. Paying the loan back is to protect yourself.
If your location gives me anything to go by, it’s a requirement of the state law that these advances/loans only be renewed X number of times. When I worked for them (it rhymes with Rational Clash Advance), we had a policy that customers were informed at the time the last renewal was made, not when it was due. This, however, was not state law but simply good customer service.
My advice to you is to give them a call and tell them that, because you were not anticipating the required total payoff, it’s going to take you however many days to get the total amount. 2-3 days shouldn’t be an issue, but I have not worked for one of these companies since 2000, and **the company you are dealing with may have entirely different policies than the one I worked for. And the one I worked for has since been bought by another company, so even if it is the same one, the policies may have changed. ** (I just want to make sure that’s clear, )
Talk to the manager of the branch if possible - they likely have a little more leeway as far as allowing for a couple of extra days. But do it before the check is due if possible - otherwise they can deposit the check on it’s due date (laws too may have changed since I worked for such a company. There is the potential that they have to deposit it on the due date depending on what state you are in and what the laws are in that state).
If at all possible, avoid going to another company and taking out a second check advance/payday loan. This is how things spiral out of control. Really.
Well, I didn’t take out another loan (most places around here won’t let you do that anyway.) I borrowed the money from a relative, which I really didn’t want to do, as they are having money problems right now. Even then, it took me most of the day running around to get it, and then return it. When I went in there, they had other people complaining that they couldn’t get the money that day. It was crazy.
The girl-behind-the-counter (I’m not sure if she’s a manager, but she’s always there) has always been pretty nice, and explained that it was a new state law that people could only renew 3 times before paying off the loan in full. JonScribe was right. Apparently the law is so that people don’t get in debt over their heads. California has a similiar law, but you have to wait until the next business day before you can get a new loan. The problem with the law our state passed (Utah) is that you can get a new loan from the same company the same day. The whole thing is pretty pointless.
I actually wouldn’t mind if they had a law similiar to California’s stating that you have x amount of time to pay it off. My problem was with the fact that I was given no warning. I was basically told about it the day before it was due, even though they’ve known about it for awhile.
The new contract I signed had it in there, and I plan on paying it off early, so I don’t have to deal with that company again.
Joyfulgirl, phone your utility companies and negotiate a payment schedule. You should be able to delay payment until your next paycheck. Explain that your cat must go to the vet and leave it at that. There should be no problem.
Now get out from under that stupid payday loan and never go back to them, ever! Notice how you are paying twice as much for that loan as it was worth in the first place? That sort of money is the most expensive there is. Credit cards can pale in comparison.
)