Real Life Impacts

Payday loans got you drowning in debt? Do you have a predatory lending story to share?

Sharing your story:

* Is the single most powerful way to make a change

* Can convince lawmakers that it is time for us to get a better deal

The Alliance to Prevent Predatory Lending (APPL) is collecting personal stories of people impacted by predatory lending to educate the public and lawmakers about the real life financial challenges people face in Washington. Email APPL with your payday story or call Poverty Action toll-free at 1-866-789-SPAN.

In Their Own Words

Patricia Davis
Seattle, WA

My name is Patricia Davis.  I have lived and worked in Seattle for over 25 years.  I appreciate your attention to my payday lending story.

My payday lending story started in 1997 and lasted a full two years.  My single loan of $500.00 ended up costing me approximately 3600.00 in fees.  Not to mention the humiliation, and stress that seemed to permeate the experience of renewing each and every loan. 

During the latter half of 1997, I was faced with divorce.  I found myself in a position of having to pay all of my expenses including full house payment, car payment, and utility expenses, in addition to attorney fees. Upon exhausting all of savings, I started to come up just a little short every month. My credit was starting to suffer, and I was getting behind on my bills.  I really only needed a short-term, small loan to stay afloat

I didn’t believe my monthly shortages were worthy of getting into a bank loan, a refinance, or to bother my family with my need.  I wanted to handle my shortness of income on my own, and I wasn’t too far behind…yet. . And since the divorce was so hard on my daughter I needed to keep some stability in our household.

Every two weeks I raced into the lending institution to cover my $500 loan plus the $75 loan fee, and I’d take out a new loan. This occurred every two weeks for 2 years.  At one point, I knew I wouldn’t make it across the bridge in time, and I called to ask that they hold my check for about a half hour.  I was advised they would – come to discover they’d sent my check to my bank any way.  So not only did I have bank fees, and embarrassment, but also additional fees with the payday lending branch. 

The utter feeling of embarrassment, and humility were even worse, since I did have a good job – but couldn’t seem to pull myself out of the downward spiral of taking out a new loan every payday. 

Fortunately, I was able to pull myself out of the cycle.  I finally had it all paid off with a promise never to step into a payday lending institution again – A promise I have kept.  I have also maintained my files to remind myself of the experience.  I noticed how very easy it was to secure one of these short-term loans, a single page to fill out, they check to see if you have at least a dollar in your account, no small print on the back, no questions about the person’s ability to repay the loan, and no resources available to help those who cannot repay their loans.