Wise Bread actually did a story on the Fuel Bank a few months ago. Well worth reading. It's a sound idea, and a good example of just what I was talking about, but I worry that it might fail just when it's most needed--going broke and shutting down just when fuel prices spiked up to unexpected peaks.
Thanks to the commenter added the effective interest rate calculation. I was afraid I already had as much math as really fit into the story; having that tidbit in a comment is perfect.
My wife and I live within walking distance of the grocery store, so we do some of our shopping European-style--going to the grocery store almost daily to get fresh ingredients for that day's menu. But that's totally compatible with stocking up when staples are cheap, giving you the best of both worlds.
I was a domestic violence/battery victim in 2006. I did not have a job or any kind of insurance to pay for the injuries I suffered from in May of 2006. My debt from my visit to the hospital's ER is somewhat over $7,100. I had a head injury so I had to have ct scans done and x-rays for other injuries. They didn't take photos of my injuries, they knew it was domestic battery. Well, we were going to go to civil court over the bill to see about making the abuser responsible for the payment of the bill. Before we could get the ball rolling on this, my dad got really sick. He was in and out of the hospital during the holidays, then passed away the April of this year. He hadn't gotten life insurance yet so we had to pay for the funeral costs. My family is just a small town middle class family. We had to sell a lot of stuff to come up with nearly $10,000 to pay for his funeral costs. Then my mom suffered a stroke just 2 months later. We are struggling now. I guess some of you know how long it takes to get Medicaid and Social Security disability. Well, we've ony had the option to sell 95% of all our things. I'm my mom's only local family that actually cares, so I've had to be her caregiver throughout all of this, making it nearly impossible to work for at least 3 months now. Jobs are hard to find in our town anyway. I am trying to find one now, but how am I going to, we just lost our phone. All my apps and resumes that were out there had my old number on them. Well, again about the debt, even before my dad got really sick, he had debt from before he got his Medicaid and Disability. It has been 8 years for my parents, of bad debt due to not having medical insurance and having to wait for medicaid and disability. During my dad's illness and death and my mom's stroke and recovery I missed the 6-12 month window on my own debt for any financial assistance. So, now I'm basically screwed. I have read where some employers won't hire you if you had bad credit, isn't that a messed up cycle that can't be broke. I want to work to pay my debts off and pay my bills, but can't get a job to do it. Anyway, I don't know what to do. My fiance just got a job, but he's got a history of problems with credit too. I just love this country. Until I can find a job, my fiance is going to have to pay for his work supplies, his own needs, my needs and my mom's. He does make good money for our town, but it's only good for basic needs, not 2 households of bills, food and pets. I know I'm going on and on about all this, I just want to know what I should do. Should I still try to take my abuser to civil court over my ER debt? That really is my only other option. BTW, I'm in Indiana. HELP!
for quite some time. It's also less gas back and forth and much more efficient for the household, as you mentioned. Dealing with ever growing crowds at the grocery and bulk stores makes my head pound and my eyes glaze over, so I try to really load up when I do bother to go. Even when we lived closer to civilization we did this. Honestly, I don't know how people go through the aggravation every single week.
In the US there are a lot of people who expect you to bargain and put the price up high. For example tag sales, the little shop owners in Chinatown in NYC. If you just pay the price or decide not to buy because the price is high you don't know the rules of the game
In response to DonHx's comment, the Australian Government was caught out editing information about itself on Wikipedia. This possibly maybe because there is a Federal election soon but who knows. In response to Paul Michael's comments I agree. People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
FYI 33.35% is a nominal rate. (.092644*360). The effective interest rate is 1.00092644^360-1=0.39566. This is nearly 40%, and that is how a bank would advertise this investment if it could.
If your self-employed and your COBRA finally runs out... where did you get your "new" insurance from? I'm in that predicament and can't really afford health insurance if it gets more expensive than it already is. Sigh... but I'd probably still look and pay whatever in desperation of having to risk it.
I worked for multiple years within the corporate headquarters in one of the top 3 payday loan companies in the US, and would like to add some context to some of the statements above. Oh, I'll speak a lot in parentheses and sidebars, so if that bothers you .. too bad.
"I didn't figure into the equation that it was a 2 weeks loan"?? How long did you think a 'payday loan' would be for?
Agreed. From what I saw, one of the first things you walk through with the CSR is when your payment is due, based on your paycheck. The choices are bi-weekly (because weekly is too soon), semi-monthly and monthly. (Side note: it's amazing how many monthly people have their payments due within the first 2 days of the month. Guess what gets paid like that? Social Security checks.)
At the end of the mysterious 2 week period, you find yourself in a situation where you don't have the money and you weigh the other options of overdraft fees and bounced check charges that would have cost you $78. Again, the payday advance cost you $30 and no harm to your credit.
Agreed. For this situation, it appears that the payday loan was cheaper than the options listed above. The credit card advancement probably was the cheapest.
The APR was right on the loan ageement you signed.
Agreed. For the company I worked at, all of their state documents (because payday loans follow state laws and perform transactions within state boundaries, not federal so they can't be monitored by the FDIC) had very clear TILA tables that displayed the APR, most often in the 390% range.
that you abused the product by taking multiple loans
There are some states (Michigan, Oklahoma and Florida are the three I remember) that require payday loan companies to register all transactions with a state-run database in order to stop a customer from trying to get more than 1 loan at a time. The PDL industry fights these regulations with every ounce of strength. So, while I agree that she was "abusing" the product, the industry certainly isn't going out of their way to stop that abuse from happening.
At what point do you, the consumer, take responsibility for your actions?
Agreed. For the most part, what I saw at the company I worked at kept things above-board, and fired those who overstepped ethical lines (the concept of the PDL excluded, of course). To be honest it wasn't much different than working a retail banking center I was also at. I probably don't have to tell you the shady practices that regular banks follow with their fees. At the large companies, the consumer is provided all the information they ask for, when they ask for it. But to someone's comment above, this customer base obviously doesn't know what to ask for.
What about the 96% of payday advance users that like our product?
Yeah, I'm gonna be wary of this number. From what I saw, the company worked hard to work the numbers to get them to say what they wanted, then published that figure. Lies, Damn Lies, and statistics.
My state (North Carolina), like many others, have shut down payday lenders
Yup! I believe North Carolina capped PDLs at 36%, which definitely knocks them out of business. Here's their reality - 1 out of 5 customers default on their loan. 20%. That's because they loan to people that the mob would deny. One person's Teletrack record (Teletrack is a sub-prime credit agency, kind-of like the bastard-brother of the big-3 that nobody talks about) showed 2 bankrupcies in 4 years, a feat that I previously thought impossible. (He got the loan.) There's no way you can build a business on that kind of default rate without some significant APR. I'm guessing my sweet-spot (where my stomach would still turn, but my ethics would start easing) would be around 80-90% APR for these individuals, but that obviously isn't as lucrative, and nothing's stopping them from hitting that 390. (Actually, I remember 495% or something on one state's TILA.)
customers DON'T have the money to repay their original loan, and immediately fall into the debt-repayment cycle
Correct. PDLs make their money on repeat business. The figures I saw were that between 70 and 80% of their transactions come from repeat business. Some states have a cool-off period where a person cannot receive more than X loans in a row (typically 3-5), and must either pay off or be sent to collections. The other item to mention is that
(nobody mentioned this one)
So, a few paragraphs above, I indicated that payday loan companies follow state laws to circumvent the FDIC. Interestingly, within the past couple years they created something called an Installment Loan... like an auto loan, but without the car. It's a loan of up to $1,000-$2,000 where they have anywhere from 4 to 16 regular payments. Last I knew, the TILA was showing an APR of 492%, and people were applying for them left and right. They're working as an intermediary for an actual bank (typically stationed in a very bank-friendly state like Delaware or South Dakota), which means they're under FDIC juristiction. You heard that right - it's Fed-approved, but they don't like it. It turns out that 492% is the magic number where a person, if they follow the loans and rollover only when 1/2 the principal is paid, cannot get into a never-ending cycle. EVENTUALLY, the principal will go to 0. This product has created a windfall for the payday loan companies, and is most likely the next frontier. (The next growth area for PDLs is international.) Becuase it's a Federal product, it can be marketed in states that aren't PDL friendly, like North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Ok, that's it for now. I don't think anything I put here is confidential or an internal secret ... it's just not easy to consolidate. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep it anonymous. The payday loan companies have a big interest in keeping this information hard to get, and I don't need any more difficulties in my life right now. Hope this helps!
Very nice writeup. The wine really struck me, because there was a discount+rebate a while ago on one of my favorites and got a couple extra bottles. Months later I wish I'd stocked more, both because that year went out of the store, and the discount was significant!
I do tend to shop at the bulk stores for lower prices and convenience, but never considered the power of bulk-purchase returns if you get a good discount or up-front price. Food and food-related items that store well probably top the list of things to do this with, but anything technology related is probably going to net you negative returns.
My hubby and I are entreprenuers and we have tried to spreadsheet method. We later moved to creating a budget sheet on the computer, but we now just use a reglular budget ledger that has spaces to fill in expenses such as mileage, gas, tolls etc. concerning our business. This is a great tip for self employed people.
There is a huge misconception that people are proposing socialized medicine. What most are proposing is national insurance coverage, you would still pick your private provided care.
Private insurance pulls 40% out of what we all pay in for profit and insane CEO salaries. This and cost controls would make the national insurance plan cheaper. Everyone would still by paying in, just less and through taxes rather than a premium taking out of your check. Oh and no more COBRA or lack of coverage.
But when your sick and have no coverage, anything, including VA care looks pretty great.
Some real world solutions to the health insurance problem coming from a guy that has not had ANY isurance in 7, or is it 8 years. First, if you contract a major disease (I am most familiar with cancer). Go to India for treatments. (Think about how many Indian doctors are already in practice here.) Hotel stay, hospice, kemo treatments, radiation, food etc etc. will be about 10-20% of the total cost in the USA. (again I am most familiar with cancer especially Sloan-Kettering in NYC). If you need emergency room care, try a walk-in clinic. Avoid Ambulance rides. Usually they have x-ray, and/or diagnostic imageing facilities on hand. If they don't, then go to a smaller facility but avoid hospitals as they are only for the insured, wealthy, and illegal aliens getting free care. If there are any complications (ie. surgery, orthapedic, specialists etc.) and you can travel. Go to Canada. It is NOT free to non Canadian citizens, but there medical system has fixed price controls so you will save a bundle. Also, prescription drugs are cheaper there, if not go to Wal-Mart for $4.00 prescriptions. And last but not least. Eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. Unotherwords, eat like Western Europeans or better yet Asians and not like an American. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Also, adopt the mind-set that the U.S. government will do nothing for you. And in most cases for working class legal Americans, it won't. Then and only then can you adopt a good game plan. This all comes from my first hand experience!
I would like to point out that your site isn't even a lender, but a reseller or affiliate referrer for cash loans? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
When addressing fees the site states:
" Your fees are less than the cost of not having the cash you need when you need it - overdraft fees, bounced check charges, taxes, even losing your job because you can't get to work! Actual fees are determined based on the information you provide when you submit your loan application. "
This in itself is misleading. How do you know what fees a customer has to pay or even what the cost to get a loan for an unspecified amount will be?
When addressing repayment the site states:
"When do I repay? Your repayment is the best part. The minimum required payment will be deducted from your bank account. You get cash when you need it most and repay when you have it!
Still a little short on payday? No problem! Generally online customers are automatically renewed every pay period. Just let your lender know when you are ready to pay in full, and your loan plus fees will be deducted from your bank account by the lender. "
This leads me to believe that more often than not, customers DON'T have the money to repay their original loan, and immediately fall into the debt-repayment cycle I was addressing in my article. This is obviously a real issue.
And I have no problem with people exercising their freedom to obtain cash loans at whatever interest rate floats their boat. As long as it is disclosed up front.
Now if someone is going to lose their car, and in 14 days or less they will have the money to both pay for their car payment AND the high interest rates they will be paying, AND this is the only viable option they have, AND they are fully aware of the terms of the loan -- then cool, get your payday loan.
My article was to make the point that this is rarely the case. Rarely.
Insurance is nothing more than a bottom-line business we participate in and they are in it to make money just like other businesses. It's sad but the truth.
My insurance doesn't cover so much of my particular illness's treatments (I just spent $25k for a treatment they didn't think was necessary) but I just kind of have to be thankful they cover what they do because it's more than I can.
I agree that the cost of insurance is nothing compared to the cost of being sick and uninsured. But there's also being insured and needed treatment that isn't covered - I've paid thousands over the past two years because my insurance refused to cover doctor visits for pre-existing conditions for the first year of coverage. I mean, zero coverage. Nada. My company was paying them about $400 a month for me, and they in turn covered not one doctor's visit.
It's not so much that insurance is expensive, as it is that insurance companies will do everything they can not to pay out.
Oh, and yeah, doctors charge too much. There. I went there.
Those commercials have genius marketing people behind them! Hopefully people reading this will think twice and realize these loans might not be as easy of a fix as they seem. Great points that some might not take the time to run through their head before they run for the cash if they hadn't read this!
This is so timely with all the debate of "free" health care. It is important to realize that health care will never be free, someone will always have to pay for it, and that insurance (no matter how expensive) is still the best option to keeping your own personal costs low.
Thanks for giving us a different perspective on a very important topic.
I agree with an earlier post, the video is probably completely faked. There is simply not enough wires or space to fit all the wires and batterys needed. Also on closer inspection of the video the batteries seem to start falling out slowly then it seems to jump to lots of falling out.
But i guess if you needed 3v for something and only had a 6v then you could use what we have learnt and use that.
Despite the fact that Payday Loan companies are trying to spin your article to a positive for them, I want to say "thank you."
I'm glad you were able to get out of that situation without too much harm, and able to pass along a message at the same time.
And everyone, don't forget - some companies understand financial hardships. It NEVER hurts to call and ask for a payment plan for something like a medical bill. The worst that could happen is they say "no", and then you'd be back at square one.
Hello, what I use for everything is docs.google.com , here you can upload spreadsheets, documents etc and access them from anywhere! Its great if you are traveling like I do. I keep my check book and expenses as well, its really great! You do need to get a google/gmail account if you dont already have one.
Isn't this stuff contain a noted carcinogen, though? I have heard anecdotal evidence both for and against this claim, but until this is clarified, d'ya really want to put this on your kids' toys?
Thanks for the good comments!
Wise Bread actually did a story on the Fuel Bank a few months ago. Well worth reading. It's a sound idea, and a good example of just what I was talking about, but I worry that it might fail just when it's most needed--going broke and shutting down just when fuel prices spiked up to unexpected peaks.
Thanks to the commenter added the effective interest rate calculation. I was afraid I already had as much math as really fit into the story; having that tidbit in a comment is perfect.
My wife and I live within walking distance of the grocery store, so we do some of our shopping European-style--going to the grocery store almost daily to get fresh ingredients for that day's menu. But that's totally compatible with stocking up when staples are cheap, giving you the best of both worlds.
I was a domestic violence/battery victim in 2006. I did not have a job or any kind of insurance to pay for the injuries I suffered from in May of 2006. My debt from my visit to the hospital's ER is somewhat over $7,100. I had a head injury so I had to have ct scans done and x-rays for other injuries. They didn't take photos of my injuries, they knew it was domestic battery. Well, we were going to go to civil court over the bill to see about making the abuser responsible for the payment of the bill. Before we could get the ball rolling on this, my dad got really sick. He was in and out of the hospital during the holidays, then passed away the April of this year. He hadn't gotten life insurance yet so we had to pay for the funeral costs. My family is just a small town middle class family. We had to sell a lot of stuff to come up with nearly $10,000 to pay for his funeral costs. Then my mom suffered a stroke just 2 months later. We are struggling now. I guess some of you know how long it takes to get Medicaid and Social Security disability. Well, we've ony had the option to sell 95% of all our things. I'm my mom's only local family that actually cares, so I've had to be her caregiver throughout all of this, making it nearly impossible to work for at least 3 months now. Jobs are hard to find in our town anyway. I am trying to find one now, but how am I going to, we just lost our phone. All my apps and resumes that were out there had my old number on them. Well, again about the debt, even before my dad got really sick, he had debt from before he got his Medicaid and Disability. It has been 8 years for my parents, of bad debt due to not having medical insurance and having to wait for medicaid and disability. During my dad's illness and death and my mom's stroke and recovery I missed the 6-12 month window on my own debt for any financial assistance. So, now I'm basically screwed. I have read where some employers won't hire you if you had bad credit, isn't that a messed up cycle that can't be broke. I want to work to pay my debts off and pay my bills, but can't get a job to do it. Anyway, I don't know what to do. My fiance just got a job, but he's got a history of problems with credit too. I just love this country. Until I can find a job, my fiance is going to have to pay for his work supplies, his own needs, my needs and my mom's. He does make good money for our town, but it's only good for basic needs, not 2 households of bills, food and pets. I know I'm going on and on about all this, I just want to know what I should do. Should I still try to take my abuser to civil court over my ER debt? That really is my only other option. BTW, I'm in Indiana. HELP!
DNK
for quite some time. It's also less gas back and forth and much more efficient for the household, as you mentioned. Dealing with ever growing crowds at the grocery and bulk stores makes my head pound and my eyes glaze over, so I try to really load up when I do bother to go. Even when we lived closer to civilization we did this. Honestly, I don't know how people go through the aggravation every single week.
Good write up on the investment returns.
In the US there are a lot of people who expect you to bargain and put the price up high. For example tag sales, the little shop owners in Chinatown in NYC. If you just pay the price or decide not to buy because the price is high you don't know the rules of the game
In response to DonHx's comment, the Australian Government was caught out editing information about itself on Wikipedia. This possibly maybe because there is a Federal election soon but who knows. In response to Paul Michael's comments I agree. People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
FYI 33.35% is a nominal rate. (.092644*360). The effective interest rate is 1.00092644^360-1=0.39566. This is nearly 40%, and that is how a bank would advertise this investment if it could.
If your self-employed and your COBRA finally runs out... where did you get your "new" insurance from? I'm in that predicament and can't really afford health insurance if it gets more expensive than it already is. Sigh... but I'd probably still look and pay whatever in desperation of having to risk it.
Just thought I should check before spending time responding.
BLC
I worked for multiple years within the corporate headquarters in one of the top 3 payday loan companies in the US, and would like to add some context to some of the statements above. Oh, I'll speak a lot in parentheses and sidebars, so if that bothers you .. too bad.
"I didn't figure into the equation that it was a 2 weeks loan"?? How long did you think a 'payday loan' would be for?
Agreed. From what I saw, one of the first things you walk through with the CSR is when your payment is due, based on your paycheck. The choices are bi-weekly (because weekly is too soon), semi-monthly and monthly. (Side note: it's amazing how many monthly people have their payments due within the first 2 days of the month. Guess what gets paid like that? Social Security checks.)
At the end of the mysterious 2 week period, you find yourself in a situation where you don't have the money and you weigh the other options of overdraft fees and bounced check charges that would have cost you $78. Again, the payday advance cost you $30 and no harm to your credit.
Agreed. For this situation, it appears that the payday loan was cheaper than the options listed above. The credit card advancement probably was the cheapest.
The APR was right on the loan ageement you signed.
Agreed. For the company I worked at, all of their state documents (because payday loans follow state laws and perform transactions within state boundaries, not federal so they can't be monitored by the FDIC) had very clear TILA tables that displayed the APR, most often in the 390% range.
that you abused the product by taking multiple loans
There are some states (Michigan, Oklahoma and Florida are the three I remember) that require payday loan companies to register all transactions with a state-run database in order to stop a customer from trying to get more than 1 loan at a time. The PDL industry fights these regulations with every ounce of strength. So, while I agree that she was "abusing" the product, the industry certainly isn't going out of their way to stop that abuse from happening.
At what point do you, the consumer, take responsibility for your actions?
Agreed. For the most part, what I saw at the company I worked at kept things above-board, and fired those who overstepped ethical lines (the concept of the PDL excluded, of course). To be honest it wasn't much different than working a retail banking center I was also at. I probably don't have to tell you the shady practices that regular banks follow with their fees. At the large companies, the consumer is provided all the information they ask for, when they ask for it. But to someone's comment above, this customer base obviously doesn't know what to ask for.
What about the 96% of payday advance users that like our product?
Yeah, I'm gonna be wary of this number. From what I saw, the company worked hard to work the numbers to get them to say what they wanted, then published that figure. Lies, Damn Lies, and statistics.
My state (North Carolina), like many others, have shut down payday lenders
Yup! I believe North Carolina capped PDLs at 36%, which definitely knocks them out of business. Here's their reality - 1 out of 5 customers default on their loan. 20%. That's because they loan to people that the mob would deny. One person's Teletrack record (Teletrack is a sub-prime credit agency, kind-of like the bastard-brother of the big-3 that nobody talks about) showed 2 bankrupcies in 4 years, a feat that I previously thought impossible. (He got the loan.) There's no way you can build a business on that kind of default rate without some significant APR. I'm guessing my sweet-spot (where my stomach would still turn, but my ethics would start easing) would be around 80-90% APR for these individuals, but that obviously isn't as lucrative, and nothing's stopping them from hitting that 390. (Actually, I remember 495% or something on one state's TILA.)
customers DON'T have the money to repay their original loan, and immediately fall into the debt-repayment cycle
Correct. PDLs make their money on repeat business. The figures I saw were that between 70 and 80% of their transactions come from repeat business. Some states have a cool-off period where a person cannot receive more than X loans in a row (typically 3-5), and must either pay off or be sent to collections. The other item to mention is that
(nobody mentioned this one)
So, a few paragraphs above, I indicated that payday loan companies follow state laws to circumvent the FDIC. Interestingly, within the past couple years they created something called an Installment Loan... like an auto loan, but without the car. It's a loan of up to $1,000-$2,000 where they have anywhere from 4 to 16 regular payments. Last I knew, the TILA was showing an APR of 492%, and people were applying for them left and right. They're working as an intermediary for an actual bank (typically stationed in a very bank-friendly state like Delaware or South Dakota), which means they're under FDIC juristiction. You heard that right - it's Fed-approved, but they don't like it. It turns out that 492% is the magic number where a person, if they follow the loans and rollover only when 1/2 the principal is paid, cannot get into a never-ending cycle. EVENTUALLY, the principal will go to 0. This product has created a windfall for the payday loan companies, and is most likely the next frontier. (The next growth area for PDLs is international.) Becuase it's a Federal product, it can be marketed in states that aren't PDL friendly, like North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Ok, that's it for now. I don't think anything I put here is confidential or an internal secret ... it's just not easy to consolidate. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep it anonymous. The payday loan companies have a big interest in keeping this information hard to get, and I don't need any more difficulties in my life right now. Hope this helps!
Very nice writeup. The wine really struck me, because there was a discount+rebate a while ago on one of my favorites and got a couple extra bottles. Months later I wish I'd stocked more, both because that year went out of the store, and the discount was significant!
I do tend to shop at the bulk stores for lower prices and convenience, but never considered the power of bulk-purchase returns if you get a good discount or up-front price. Food and food-related items that store well probably top the list of things to do this with, but anything technology related is probably going to net you negative returns.
PS: Looked at Fuel Bank?
My hubby and I are entreprenuers and we have tried to spreadsheet method. We later moved to creating a budget sheet on the computer, but we now just use a reglular budget ledger that has spaces to fill in expenses such as mileage, gas, tolls etc. concerning our business. This is a great tip for self employed people.
There is a huge misconception that people are proposing socialized medicine. What most are proposing is national insurance coverage, you would still pick your private provided care.
Private insurance pulls 40% out of what we all pay in for profit and insane CEO salaries. This and cost controls would make the national insurance plan cheaper. Everyone would still by paying in, just less and through taxes rather than a premium taking out of your check. Oh and no more COBRA or lack of coverage.
But when your sick and have no coverage, anything, including VA care looks pretty great.
Some real world solutions to the health insurance problem coming from a guy that has not had ANY isurance in 7, or is it 8 years. First, if you contract a major disease (I am most familiar with cancer). Go to India for treatments. (Think about how many Indian doctors are already in practice here.) Hotel stay, hospice, kemo treatments, radiation, food etc etc. will be about 10-20% of the total cost in the USA. (again I am most familiar with cancer especially Sloan-Kettering in NYC). If you need emergency room care, try a walk-in clinic. Avoid Ambulance rides. Usually they have x-ray, and/or diagnostic imageing facilities on hand. If they don't, then go to a smaller facility but avoid hospitals as they are only for the insured, wealthy, and illegal aliens getting free care. If there are any complications (ie. surgery, orthapedic, specialists etc.) and you can travel. Go to Canada. It is NOT free to non Canadian citizens, but there medical system has fixed price controls so you will save a bundle. Also, prescription drugs are cheaper there, if not go to Wal-Mart for $4.00 prescriptions. And last but not least. Eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. Unotherwords, eat like Western Europeans or better yet Asians and not like an American. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Also, adopt the mind-set that the U.S. government will do nothing for you. And in most cases for working class legal Americans, it won't. Then and only then can you adopt a good game plan. This all comes from my first hand experience!
I would like to point out that your site isn't even a lender, but a reseller or affiliate referrer for cash loans? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
When addressing fees the site states:
" Your fees are less than the cost of not having the cash you need when you need it - overdraft fees, bounced check charges, taxes, even losing your job because you can't get to work! Actual fees are determined based on the information you provide when you submit your loan application. "
This in itself is misleading. How do you know what fees a customer has to pay or even what the cost to get a loan for an unspecified amount will be?
When addressing repayment the site states:
"When do I repay?
Your repayment is the best part. The minimum required payment will be deducted from your bank account. You get cash when you need it most and repay when you have it!
Still a little short on payday? No problem! Generally online customers are automatically renewed every pay period. Just let your lender know when you are ready to pay in full, and your loan plus fees will be deducted from your bank account by the lender. "
This leads me to believe that more often than not, customers DON'T have the money to repay their original loan, and immediately fall into the debt-repayment cycle I was addressing in my article. This is obviously a real issue.
If you're referring to me, I'm a woman author.
And I have no problem with people exercising their freedom to obtain cash loans at whatever interest rate floats their boat. As long as it is disclosed up front.
Now if someone is going to lose their car, and in 14 days or less they will have the money to both pay for their car payment AND the high interest rates they will be paying, AND this is the only viable option they have, AND they are fully aware of the terms of the loan -- then cool, get your payday loan.
My article was to make the point that this is rarely the case. Rarely.
Insurance is nothing more than a bottom-line business we participate in and they are in it to make money just like other businesses. It's sad but the truth.
My insurance doesn't cover so much of my particular illness's treatments (I just spent $25k for a treatment they didn't think was necessary) but I just kind of have to be thankful they cover what they do because it's more than I can.
I dunno, like, socialized medicine? Maybe?
I agree that the cost of insurance is nothing compared to the cost of being sick and uninsured. But there's also being insured and needed treatment that isn't covered - I've paid thousands over the past two years because my insurance refused to cover doctor visits for pre-existing conditions for the first year of coverage. I mean, zero coverage. Nada. My company was paying them about $400 a month for me, and they in turn covered not one doctor's visit.
It's not so much that insurance is expensive, as it is that insurance companies will do everything they can not to pay out.
Oh, and yeah, doctors charge too much. There. I went there.
They took the fans out because you wouldn't need them, oil naturally disperses heat
Those commercials have genius marketing people behind them! Hopefully people reading this will think twice and realize these loans might not be as easy of a fix as they seem. Great points that some might not take the time to run through their head before they run for the cash if they hadn't read this!
This is so timely with all the debate of "free" health care. It is important to realize that health care will never be free, someone will always have to pay for it, and that insurance (no matter how expensive) is still the best option to keeping your own personal costs low.
Thanks for giving us a different perspective on a very important topic.
I agree with an earlier post, the video is probably completely faked. There is simply not enough wires or space to fit all the wires and batterys needed. Also on closer inspection of the video the batteries seem to start falling out slowly then it seems to jump to lots of falling out.
But i guess if you needed 3v for something and only had a 6v then you could use what we have learnt and use that.
Steven
"They" is becoming a standard pronoun to replace the awkward "he/she." It's no longer considered wrong.
Despite the fact that Payday Loan companies are trying to spin your article to a positive for them, I want to say "thank you."
I'm glad you were able to get out of that situation without too much harm, and able to pass along a message at the same time.
And everyone, don't forget - some companies understand financial hardships. It NEVER hurts to call and ask for a payment plan for something like a medical bill. The worst that could happen is they say "no", and then you'd be back at square one.
Hello, what I use for everything is docs.google.com , here you can upload spreadsheets, documents etc and access them from anywhere! Its great if you are traveling like I do. I keep my check book and expenses as well, its really great! You do need to get a google/gmail account if you dont already have one.
Isn't this stuff contain a noted carcinogen, though? I have heard anecdotal evidence both for and against this claim, but until this is clarified, d'ya really want to put this on your kids' toys?