BORROW
Amanda Spurgeon
I recently posted a question on Facebook: have any of my friends ever taken out a payday loan? This quick survey really only taught me one thing. A lot of people have very strong opinions about payday loans, whether they’ve ever used them or not. This is probably due in large part to some anecdotal coverage of the payday loan industry in the news recently (see: this segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver). I may not need to tell you this, but the overwhelming opinion of payday loans is intensely negative. Run a quick poll on Facebook for yourself or enter a query on Reddit’s r/personalfinance and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Average Joe seems to clearly understand that payday loans are bad news. Why, then, are twelve million Americans getting wrapped up in this get poor quick scheme every year? Not because they don’t understand the potential dangers of payday lending. Rising inflation and stagnant wages have left the average American few places to turn when they can no longer make ends meet and when faced with a decision like getting evicted or spending half the year paying off a $375 loan, the risk is worth it.
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