The Dirty Truth about the Payday Loan Business

Confessions of a former Payday Loan Manager.

Working in the payday loan industry is a real eye opener. I use to work as a manager for a major payday loan call center and some of the stuff I saw made me sick.

The payday loan industry makes money and gets rich off of hardworking poor people. Why anyone would want to take a payday loan for such ridiculous fees always blew my mind. Granted a payday loan can help in an emergency situation, but it’s a clear rip off.

Many of our customers would get caught in the PayDay Loan Trap.

A customer would take out a loan, and when it came time to pay off the payday loan, they wouldn’t have enough money to cover all of it. So, their only option would be to pay an extension fee, extending their due date another couple weeks. This cycle usually continues until the borrower has paid more than 2 or 3 times the amount of the original loan.

After working my way up the ranks of a payday loan company, this is what else I can tell you about the secrets and dirty tricks of the payday loan business:

• When you ask to speak to a supervisor, you will more than likely just be talking to another payday loan sales representative pretending to be a supervisor.
• Ask for a fee discount, there is always one.
• Many customers call in and complain, and it doesn't take much griping to be offered a discount on your loan. Customers who call in to complain almost always get some type of fee discount, or payoff extension.
• There are lots of regulations on interest rates and how high it can be. So, we get around that by charging "fees".
• We collect as much contact info about you as we can, so we can harass you and find you if you don't pay up.
• We always ask for more info than we need.
• Our company thrives off making tons of money off poor people who get caught in the payday loan trap.
• There is usually an asterisk next to every guarantee we make.
• There is so much fine print on our loan contracts that many employees don’t even know what it says.
• Payday Loan reps are more worried about when their shift ends, not if or when you get your money.
• An average payday loan borrower will end up paying more than double the amount of the original loan, after the loan is finally paid off.
• If you do happen to get a payday loan, your best bet is to pay it off right away, rather than getting the loan extended and paying more fees and getting caught in the payday loan trap. (or better yet, don't get a payday loan at all)
• Extending the loan due date does not help you in any way...it just increases your fee amount due.
• The average APR on a payday loan is about 651.79%! We try to hide this fact as best we can by putting it in the fine print.
• If you call in to complain, we will lie just to get you off the phone.
• We usually offer a "refer a friend" program, where you receive credit for every friend you refer. You won't be doing this friend a favor at all. We will make hundreds off him/her and they will more than likely get stuck in the payday loan trap many are in.