I work at a payday loan company. Most days I love it, we have some great customers that I look forward to seeing every week and I work with a couple of awesome ladies. But like any job, there are always those certain customers…
I did not drag you in here. I need not force you to take the money. As soon as you walk in, there are signs that clearly state how much this is gonna cost. Not only are there signs on the wall that BOLDLY state the cost of borrowing, but BEFORE I process your loan I tell you how much the payback will be. You say “OK, sounds good.”
AFTER I process the loan, there are TWO separate places indicating AGAIN the cost of borrowing and what the payback will be. You willingly sign your name in these 2 spots. And then, just to make sure things are reeeeal clear before you go I say “Alright Mr. So and So, your payback is going to be this much money! See you in 2 weeks, have a great day!”
So after all of this, it is super fucking annoying having people coming into my branch saying the cost of borrowing is outrageous (of fucking course it is!!) how we are loan sharks, they can’t afford to pay their loan back because their car broke or their fish died or any other crazy excuse they can think of.
First of all, lose the fucking attitude and stop swearing at me. I did not drag you in here kicking & screaming, demanding that you take out this loan. You come in here on your own knowing full well what you are getting yourselves into. I am not a loan shark, I am simply offering you the service of a high-cost loan that you asked for.
There are certain customers that we will bend over backwards for? You can’t pay your loan? Fine! We’ll take payment arrangements, even if it takes you 3 months to pay it back!! But then there are those bastards who come in who just need something to complain about like the “crimes” these payday loans commit. Fuck off, you’re gonna have a lot more to complain about after I have the pleasure of debiting your account, taking your entire pay and causing you NSF fees up the ass just for spite.
Next time ask your Grandma for some money! —Taking a Bite out of Your Bank Account
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2012.
No, you WORK as a loan shark. You and your company live off the poverty and misfortune of others. Your company charges exorbitant fees and interest charges. YOU get a portion of that loan-sharked cash though your pay check. Does it feel good to screw little old ladies and impoverished people with disabilities? Does the food you buy taste good knowing the last loan you provided will cause that person to live longer in debt? Fuck off with your holier-than-thou attitude!
okay,this part of my comment, has nothing to do with this bitch. i just read in the horrid paper,that those fucking striking douchebags, are now trying to stop the snow lows from doing their job.
i hope the fuck they get run itch, payday loans are okay in themselves, as long as they try not to be a usery. there were laws put in place in canada, and the u.s., to prevent just this type of shit. if you, as a payday loan person, tries to charge more than the acceted and by law rates, on your return, then you can be charged under the criminal code now. and either pay one fucking big fine, and/or lose your business license.
You are a curse on those who cannot afford to make it , from pay day to pay day ! & IMO all organizatons that prey on the weak & the poor, should be made illegal.
Heh, onetime at Armview on a Friday night I had a window seat overlooking Chebucto. The endless stream of losers making their way into that place was hilarious/sad.
A) who needs an emergency ‘loan’ on a friday night between 7 and 10pm? Did you forget to go to the bank and cash your cheque, today? I don’t think they’re using the money to buy groceries, just sayin’
B) A lot of them were sporting nice ‘downtown’ clothes to the payday loan place. um, let me guess, 1st stop payday loan place, 2nd stop NSLC for pre-drinks, 3rd stop palace?
Idiots, all. Make ’em pay.
I’m not making this shit up. Get a window seat Friday or Saturday night at the Armview and watch the show between 6/7 and 10pm. Get the lamb burger, it’s awesome.
You work and make money as a parasite on humanity, often causing extreme misery to others who foolishly sign up. Meanwhile it is a legal (barely) business. Meanwhile, prostitution is not legal, yet provides a better service to people and a prostitute is truly much higher on the dignity scale than a parasitical userer. You may as well be working for blood money, it is damned close to it now. A shark is a majestic animal, even if terrifying, but a parasite has no majesty at all. So you are right not to identify yourself as a shark, you are much more dangerous to many humans than they are.
You know, I think people that work at these places would have some of the greatest stories.
Usery? Really? Well Jesus on a hot plate, maybe it’s nigh time for the miracle worker to make a second appearance and smite all of those leaches, wha?
Well, you may be a choirboy off the clock, OB, but face the fact that your business preys and profits from the poor. Unless they’re young and just starting out, this strata are (warning: huge generalization here) are of below average intelligence and possibly mentally disabled, as well.
Look at your clientele, OB! You can’t expect a duchess for sixpence!
(and let’s not even think about the chances that any of your customers reads LLWWB, recognizes self and vows to atone to you at his/her first opportunity)
dartguy, prostitution is legal, by the way. They just can’t solicit on the streets. I guess now you can stop going incognito.
The people that borrow the money are made aware of the fees several times before they’re given the money. Of course the interest fees are insanely high, but this is a business, not your Aunt Patsy.
So.. none of you guys use credit cards I take it?
Are these places any worse than the banks who approve people for mortgages they can’t afford and them boot them out of their home at the drop of a dime? Some people don’t have a family to turn to during hard times.
I agree with this bitch wholeheartedly, don’t sign the papers and then bitch how much it costs. They have rent to pay too.
“IMO all organizatons that prey on the weak & the poor, should be made illegal.”
Well, there goes NSLC, Atlantic Lotto, the casinos and church bingos….Oh, and dollar stores….(stupid dollar stores)
Tommy, check cashing places aren’t worse than credit card companies—they’re of the same ilk.
The mutual fund I used to belong to made money by investing in credit cards, who made their money off—bingo—overextended people who paid 28% or more in interest charges on credit balances they never should have been approved for from the get go.
That’s what I hate about the 1% They’re parasites on the poor.
Ivan, I miss the dollar store! A dear friend, her 10 year old twin boys and their dad are big fans of the Boston Bruins and have seen them play a few times this season. I told them if they wave a NS flag, Brad Marchand will nod to them, and they told me they saw him do it a couple of weeks ago! Of course, it’s next to impossible to get such an item here. Last summer, I tried to spend the last of my Canadian $ and dropped a pile at the dollar store on Pleasant street, but somehow neglected to buy NS flags. One of my many regrets…
..same morons that go to those furniture/appl. places and only spend like 25/wk for crappy ass furniture go to loan shark offices..these peeps are too stoopid to figure out interest rates anywho…fuck ’em
One of the bitchers could probably mail ya one pretty easily, Xeno.
I can’t imagine how I could possibly get one, except perhaps as a gift…
I know and I agree Xeno it’s disgusting, but I mean, so is paying 130 dollars for sneakers that cost 4 bucks to make, or giving money to a charity that takes it’s member’s salaries plus commission off the top. Buying a meal at a restaurant ffs. It’s called capitalism and as cut throat as it is, it’s all we got. If you come up with a better way to run society let me know. OB’s place of work offers a service that demand exists for, or the business wouldn’t exist.
You know not everybody has a bank account right? Some people can’t even get approved to open one. These people have to cash their cheques somewhere.
I used to think the only people that happened to was total deadbeat scumbags, till I talked to a guy who had gotten really sick and lost everything because his medical bills were so high. He was American but still. Shit happens.
We all pay outrageous mark ups and we all have borrowed money in our life, what makes this business the spawn of satan? They provide a service for a fee. If they were outlawed then the real loan sharks would provide the service, and they wouldn’t be working out any 3 month payment plan as described here. They also charge closer to 100% interest.
I’m with ya OB fuck em! It’s not your fault they abuse your service, some people DO use it responsibly as a last resort.
The saddest part of this is that you have REGULARS!
You’re right OP. If people weren’t stupid about their finances and personal choices you’d be out of a job.
Dartguy, i don’t disagree. But it’s a stupid choice. And stupid should hurt sometimes.
You’re responsible for walking in and taking out the loan. YOU. You make the choice, you choose whether or not to look at the numbers. You.
They are responsible for being evil douchebags who dangle a carrot of quick money. They are predators who saw a niche of poor souls with bad credit and exploited the hell out of them.
Personally i could never do a job like that because I don’t prey on the stupid to any appreciable degree. But if you can live with yourself OP, all the power to you.
I know, Tommy, and I have credit cards, too…I just don’t carry any debt on them — I won’t be one of the ones getting metaphorically ass fucked by the banks.
This was not the case when I was younger. I never had a great sense of money, and I can remember having 28% interest charged on one of my cards. I dug myself out, though, and I never want to be there again.
Since when do we feel pity for morons who borrow money at stupid ass rates so they can party like people with jobs on the weekends?
I wonder if the payday loan people ever get payday loans.
Hmm.
Also: you borrow ONCE from those places and BAM you’re sucked in fo’ life.
Further: no one forced anyone to borrow money from them. If yo’ that broke, sell yo’ ass or get yo’ ass to a food bank.
Oh and hay! like cranky said — people probably borrow money from those places for dumb shit (like going out on a friday night). You know, I work, I make decent money, but sometimes I can’t afford to do what I want to do or buy what I want to buy… so you know what? I don’t do it or I don’t buy it. Novel idea, eh?
People are stupid. That’s my fault? Or the employees fault? Should we bitch about NSLC employees as well? How about the local corner store that sells smokes?
you’ll call them ‘regulars’ until they mysteriously stop showing up every week…
you not realizing that their over-inflated-interest repayment plan has dug them a nice hole to commit suicide in.
Rock bottom is a nice place to have a lay down … and die…
…these are also the same dummies who go to like H&R Block and pay 15% interest on their tax refunds ..than go to bingo/buy scratch/lotto tickets etc..they will always be here…that’s life
i haven’t commented on this bitch until now because it stirs up a lot of mixed feelings.
its a free market and this business provides a loan service with very clear terms…. part of me says that they are doing nothing wrong.
but then the other part of me kicks in and agrees that this service preys on the weakest class of people, people who have poor self control and cant truly understand the trap that they are falling into by taking these loans out.
i guess it comes down to this. do we want the government stepping in and being big brother in yet another industry because some of us make bad personal/financial choices?
to me the answer is no….. so i guess the quasi-loan sharks win this round.
Petty Kitty quote “sometimes I can’t afford to do what I want to do or Buy what I want to buy. So you know what? I don’t do it or I don’t buy it. Novel idea ‘eh? “
You know what Petty K?
If you could somehow get our wonderful elected officials to do EXACTLY THE SAME THING…maybe we wouldn’t be 13 BIllion dollars in debt in this Province.
As for your idea being novel or even new…it is IMO very sensible & is how I have pretty much lived my life.
Scary ‘eh ?
You & me being similar ~;)
I don’t think we’re THAT far apart on a lot of things, More-on.
I don’t have a credit card or any consumer debt. Had some, paid it off and closed the accounts. The only payment aside from necessities (food, rent, utilities) I have/month is my cell phone. I save my money if I want something and when I buy it, I use cash and it’s allll mine! 🙂 And when I get paid I don’t have to dish anything out to a credit card company.
Then again, I don’t have a desire to go out and spend tons of money on ‘going out’ (eating out, drinking, going downtown, etc…).
“People are stupid. That’s my fault? Or the employees fault? Should we bitch about NSLC employees as well? How about the local corner store that sells smokes?”
My point exactly, not to mention fast food workers and cab drivers. You can call it taking advantage or you can call it fulfilling a demand. People spend money on shit they shouldn’t every second of every day and if they didn’t our economy would crash.
I enjoy reading all these comments. Trust me, I agree whole heartedly that the company I work for as long as all the other companies just like us prey on people who have no other option. And they don’t treat their employess any better.
It is a vicious cycle to get out of once you get into it, however it is possible to use payday loan companies and not get raped. You need a couple hundred bucks? Fine .. You come in and take like $800 .. now you’ve got yourself a nice mess.
However, just like everyone else .. This job pays my bills. Its not a career and I can’t wait to get out of here. But for now, it provides what I need it to.. A small but steady income. I’ve got bills up the ass, my two co-workers are single mothers .. Trust me when I say, we are well aware of struggles people go through because we are all struggling ourselves to scrape by.
These companies are owned by greedy, selfish, bastards who don’t care about their customers stories or struggles. They just want them in and out with a loan.
Which is why, at my branch we will do ANYTHING in our power to help people get out of the mess that payday loans cause. We know what its like to get in over your head and need help to get out.
Its really hard seeing the same pensioners, single mothers, and people who are just going through a hard time come in month after month, week after week.. But then, as I said in the original bitch its the people who come in here AFTER taking out a loan and complain about the outrageous cost, who don’t pay their loans, who close their accounts, etc etc that I really hate. Every single person is well informed of how this business works. And if they don’t like it then they should just leave and be done with it. If you go ahead and proceed with something you feel is wrong or don’t agree with, that’s your problem not mine. I’m not the bad guy here, that’s all I’m saying 🙂