When people complain about payday loans not being fair, first of all they are probably not understanding what the actual charges are and instead are focusing on the meaningless APR rate. Secondly, they are failing to understand that in any voluntary exchange, the only way that the exchange can be made is when both parties feel that they are benefiting from the exchange. Otherwise, it stands to reason, that they would not make the deal.
The first idea that has to be dealt with, before people are able to see that a pay day loan does actually have many advantages, is that the interest rates are too high. Naturally the person taking out the loan would like the interest rates to be zero, so in that sense they are always too high for the consumer. However if we are talking about high or not compared to other loans, then actually the rates for pay day loans are actually not high.
To say that payday loan rates are not high might seem like a ridiculous statement to make. After all, we have probably all seen the extremely high APR rates that are being charged. The thing to remember about that though, is that they describe yearly interest rates, and pay day loans do not last a year. They’re not supposed to, in any case. So really the APR is meaningless for short term loans.
Instead of looking at the interest rate, therefore, what we should really be doing in terms of comparison is look at the actual amount of interest which is being charged. That is, after the loan has been paid off, how much of that was interest? For a long term bank loan, it is often around the 20-30% range, and that is exactly the same with payday financing as well. In fact sometimes it is less than that, so they can actually be cheaper than bank loans effectively.
But why would anyone want to take a loan out for so short a time? Isn’t it just a matter of impatience to not wait until you are paid to get what you need? Usually it would be, but there are special circumstances, called emergencies, when waiting might not be the best course of action. Actually sometimes it would be irresponsible to not try to get a short term loan.
For example, if you have got a bill which has got to be paid, and if you don’t pay it then you will lose an essential service, is it still better to wait? Perhaps it is, maybe if you really can’t afford that service anymore and have no prospects of being able to do so, maybe you should just let it slide. On the other hand, if you can afford it but due to unfortunate circumstances you can’t on that particular month, then most people would probably say that it is better to take out the loan and keep the service going.
It might not be some service that is going to be cut off though, it could be just about any emergency expense that you come across. Whether it’s running out of money on holiday, your car breaking down, medical expenses or many other things besides, there are many ways that a payday loan can be of benefit to people. You just have to be careful that you will be able to pay it back on time.
There are many more situations of this kind when payday financing becomes very desirable. The key is whether or not it can be afforded, which is really the key as to whether any loan is going to be successful. In this sense the payday lender is actually being more responsible than a bank, because with payday loans you only need to make sure that the borrower is going to get paid next month, whereas a bank is trying to look a lot further into the future.
Get more on payday loans from Tony Spiel at Payday Loans UK.