Many payday loan companies claim that they can help get you out of debt, but the truth is, they are more likely to get you into debt.

Take my younger brother for instance, he’s a twenty year old college kid who barely makes enough money to pay his own rent. He’s too busy with school to take on extra work, but guaranteed that when the boys come calling with a keg, ready to throw some big bash he is out of the door with out taking a second glance at his homework. He recently called me up asking me if he could borrow some money for a “school trip”. Yeah right! What kind of school trip do college students do? I wasn’t trying to be the tough older brother on him, but I just didn’t have the cash to lend him at the time. I myself am in residency right now and am not making the big bucks yet that most doctors do, but I don’t think he understands that yet.

To say the least, he was a little peeved with me that I couldn’t do anything to help him out. To be frank, I think I wanted him to take care of himself the way that I did when I was in his spot. I worked my butt off to get through school and just didn’t feel like he was doing enough to get by. On the same token I remember what it was like to be young in your first years of college and wanted to help him out a little bit. I called him back and decided that I could after all spare a couple of hundred dollars for his “school trip”, but only after I got him to admit where he was actually going, I was right some crazy spring break college event. I wired him the money and didn’t hear back from him until a month later. He called me up in a panic asking me if he could borrow $500 from me, I asked why and after much time of trying to force the truth out of him he finally admitted to taking out a payday loan to get extra money for his trip. I was, excuse my language, but so pissed off at him that I felt like hanging up on him! I asked him why he needed the 500 bucks right off the bat, and he went on to explain. Basically when you take out one of these loans, you apply online and then correspond by email, apparently my brother accepted the loan, didn’t read the terms and set up a payment due date. But because he was in such a rush, he didn’t notice that he had to arrange for a payment option, when the day he chose came around for what he thought was going to be a payment, turned out to be the full amount of the loan to be debited out of his account. He did not have the funds in his account so he ended up with charges from the bank and the loan company. He now turned to me for help again.

I of course bailed him out of this one, but I warned him in my big brother tone, that he better never do it again. I’m pretty sure he got the picture. I have a feeling that even if he had set up minimum payments he would have missed them and somehow come to me for help anyway. I feel that payday loans can be a tricky thing for people who are looking for fast cash, because they tend to overlook the fine print and the fact that these loans are very pricey. Be aware that you can get yourself in big trouble if you’re not responsible.