Who will stand in defence of payday lenders?

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Comment by Warren on July 11, 2008 at 9:58

Too true, Monica. It's a sad state of affairs, but the greedy will always prey on the weak. Well, most humans prey on the weak. We are animals, after all.

Warren

Comment by Monica on July 11, 2008 at 0:56

A recipe for disaster! Payday lenders; a necessary evil saving low income earners having to drag their toaster/blender/sons ipod to the hock shop, after a binge on booze or drugs or pokies (or the trifecta) so they can pay the rent for the next fortnight. Regulation won't help it, restrict the market and it goes underground. A problem of the ages.

Comment by JG on July 5, 2008 at 1:06

And there you go, a recipe for poverty.

Comment by JG on June 19, 2008 at 0:50

reminds me of Housman's Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries:

"What God abandoned, these defended, And saved the sum of things for pay."

Comment by Natalie Bochenski on June 18, 2008 at 22:18

I agree with your description of payday lenders as a "necessary evil".

In the Lateline report that JG has quoted, it mentions that payday lending really only began in the late 90s. So it's a financial option that's become very well-ingrained in just 10 years.

What did we do before them, I wonder?

As you say Kylie, perhaps we depended too much on our families to help us out?

Have payday lenders FILLED a gap in the market, or CREATED one, then filled it?

Questions, questions!

Comment by Kylie on June 18, 2008 at 21:46

I myself don't like payday lenders and I would prefer that they didn't exist. In a perfect world I'd love to help people budget etc but the ones I have helped aren't prepared to do what is neccesary to fix their financial woes and they end up unable to get finance from the banks at all. Then an emergency crops up and where do they get the money? Even though I don't like payday lenders, maybe they are a neccesary evil as family members can't keep bailing them out when the money is never repaid. I didn't know about the No Interest Loan System, I'll keep it in mind as it sounds much better than the 'sharks'.

Comment by Natalie Bochenski on June 18, 2008 at 21:32

But Kylie, would more payday lenders "normalise" the practice -and is that what we want?

Surely we should be encouraging people to budget properly, and stick to banks, building societies and other "big" lenders? Do we want people to get used to the idea of regularly dipping into high-interest, high-fee payday loans?

In Queensland, the state government's established a No Interest Loan system, which will allow more people access to interest-free loans for important costs like washing machines, car repairs, etc.

Comment by JG on June 18, 2008 at 15:26

Just imagine the fury of Tony Jones as more dodgy shopfronts with lurid painted windows fill up the streets.

Comment by Kylie on June 18, 2008 at 15:24

No. Does it ever in the long run? Maybe if we had more payday lenders, competition would reduce the costs.

Comment by JG on June 18, 2008 at 15:21

Good points.

Another one for the mix:

Will commonwealth regulation actually reduce the costs?

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