Sometimes Those Payday Loan Services Are Useful, But Be Careful
I moved into a new house a couple years ago. It has one of those geo-thermal heating units. At the time I thought “cool” those are supposed to be efficient. And since the only other option in the area was tanked propane, I thought it made since. Crap... in three years I've not had an electric bill below $200, and most of the time, whether summer or winter, it's closer to $400 unless I monitor it closely.
Well things came to a head a couple months ago. My business was dragging, I had car expenses I didn't anticipate, along with lump some insurance policies. My credit sucks, blame my business, it eats cash.
Well I skipped one month on the utility bill thinking I could make it to my next payday when my clients paid. Unfortunately they had their own troubles and announced they wouldn't be able to pay their rather substantial bill for 2-3 weeks longer than I had expected. On their heels was Consumers Energy, demanding payment of the past due balance or they would disconnect service... shit. I needed to come up with $427 within the next 3 days.
I'd heard about those Payday Loan and Cash Advance services and I'd always scoffed at them thinking what kind of moron would use that service ? Well... this kind of moron I guess. I was desperate and didn't want to turn to friends of family. So I went online in search of someplace I could get a quick loan.
I found lots of places, most looked the same. I really didn't want to spend hours reading through all of them. I ran across this site paydayloanpicker.com. They had listed a couple places I had already seen and several I had not. They reviewed each one and made it easy to make a quick comparison and decision.
I ended up choosing MyCashNow.com, a pretty cheesy name I know. But it was straight forward. Entered my name, address and e-mail. They immediately sent me an application to complete which basically just required my checking account number, a photocopy of my drivers license, and copies of some receipt client payments. They approved a $500 14 cash advance for me, which was fine, that's all I needed. The cost was $592. They deposited the money in my checking account the next day, then 14 days later when the payment was due contacted me and offered to extend it for another 14 days. By that time I had been paid by my client, so took the $592 from my account and I was done.
Now I know that $92 to borrow $500 seems like a lot. But faced with disconnection of my electric that was a no brainer. Besides, if they had disconnected it, I would have been charged a $75 reconnect fee. So that $92 actually seemed like a good deal to me.
So.. I'm no longer a skeptic. While I wouldn't take out these cash advances on a whim, they certainly can be handy in certain circumstances. I'd advise you to read the terms of the company, or better still find a review site like I did and read the terms collectively for a bunch of companies at once.
Well things came to a head a couple months ago. My business was dragging, I had car expenses I didn't anticipate, along with lump some insurance policies. My credit sucks, blame my business, it eats cash.
Well I skipped one month on the utility bill thinking I could make it to my next payday when my clients paid. Unfortunately they had their own troubles and announced they wouldn't be able to pay their rather substantial bill for 2-3 weeks longer than I had expected. On their heels was Consumers Energy, demanding payment of the past due balance or they would disconnect service... shit. I needed to come up with $427 within the next 3 days.
I'd heard about those Payday Loan and Cash Advance services and I'd always scoffed at them thinking what kind of moron would use that service ? Well... this kind of moron I guess. I was desperate and didn't want to turn to friends of family. So I went online in search of someplace I could get a quick loan.
I found lots of places, most looked the same. I really didn't want to spend hours reading through all of them. I ran across this site paydayloanpicker.com. They had listed a couple places I had already seen and several I had not. They reviewed each one and made it easy to make a quick comparison and decision.
I ended up choosing MyCashNow.com, a pretty cheesy name I know. But it was straight forward. Entered my name, address and e-mail. They immediately sent me an application to complete which basically just required my checking account number, a photocopy of my drivers license, and copies of some receipt client payments. They approved a $500 14 cash advance for me, which was fine, that's all I needed. The cost was $592. They deposited the money in my checking account the next day, then 14 days later when the payment was due contacted me and offered to extend it for another 14 days. By that time I had been paid by my client, so took the $592 from my account and I was done.
Now I know that $92 to borrow $500 seems like a lot. But faced with disconnection of my electric that was a no brainer. Besides, if they had disconnected it, I would have been charged a $75 reconnect fee. So that $92 actually seemed like a good deal to me.
So.. I'm no longer a skeptic. While I wouldn't take out these cash advances on a whim, they certainly can be handy in certain circumstances. I'd advise you to read the terms of the company, or better still find a review site like I did and read the terms collectively for a bunch of companies at once.