Payday Loans – Are They a Ripoff?

If you have no access to credit and need a quick loan, you may consider a payday loan. The idea sounds attractive: the lender deposits up to $2,000 into your bank account and the loan is automatically repaid from your next paycheck. You don’t need collateral and there’s no credit check.But before you walk into the payday loan office, do your homework. Here are some crucial facts you need to know.1. What is a payday loan? According to the U.S. government, a payday loan is defined as “a closed-end credit transaction, unsecured by any interest in the consumer’s personal property and excluding any credit card transaction under an open end consumer credit plan, with a term of 91 or fewer days in which the amount financed does not exceed $2,000 with a finance charge exceeding an annual percentage rate of 36%.” In other words: short-term, high-interest.To ensure repayment, the lender will require that you present a personal check for the total amount borrowed plus fees, or that you sign over legal access to your bank account for the total amount due. Your check is post-dated to your next payday. On that day the lender will cash the check or debit your bank account. This gives the lender an automatic repayment mechanism and the legal right to collect.2. Are payday loans legal everywhere? No! They are regulated by individual states. In some states they are illegal.They are also illegal for members of the U.S. military. One of the provisions of the FY 2007 Military Authorization Act makes it against the law for lenders to make payday loans and/or car title loans to military personnel. Lenders are also prohibited from charging more than 36% interest to military borrowers. When calculating the interest rate, additional renewal charges, fees, service charges, or credit insurance premiums must be included.3. What are the interest rates for these types of loans? Very high! Why? Because the lender typically requires only that you have a job and a bank account for the past sixty days. Payday loans are most often made to people who have poor credit and no collateral. These high-risk borrowers pay interest rates that can be as high as 600% APR.What does that mean? Here’s a typical payday loan breakdown:Loan amount: $1,500
Your next payday: 14 days from today
Fee per $100 borrowed: $20
Your effective APR: 521.43%
Total fees you pay: $300
Total debited from your account 14 days from now: $1,800Fourteen days after advancing you the loan for $1,500, the lender will debit $1,800 from your bank account. If for some reason the full amount isn’t there, you must still pay the $300 fee for that 14-day period. You will pay $300 every two weeks until you repay the original $1,500. When you receive your next paycheck 14 days later, you will owe $1,800. That means that if you miss the first repayment deadline, you will end up paying a total of $2,100.4. Are payday loans controversial? Yes! In many states they are considered usurious and are illegal. But attempts to regulate payday loans are receiving mixed responses. Congress is now considering the Payday Loan Reform Act of 2009 (HR 1214 IH). This bill would ostensibly regulate payday loans, but consumer protection groups are opposed. In a recent letter to U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, the bill’s sponsor, several groups including the National Consumer Law Center assert that H.R. 1214 gives Congressional authorization for single-payment loans of 780 percent APR for one week or 390 percent APR for two weeks. The mandated loan fee limit of fifteen cents per dollar loaned sounds reasonable, but it permits lenders to charge $75 for a typical $500 loan, which is due on the following payday. For the average customer who takes out nine loans per year, H.R. 1214 permits lenders to collect $675 in finance charges for a $500 loan taken out over an eighteen weeks.Imagine paying more in finance charges than the loan amount! Before you consider a payday loan, do the research and ask yourself if it’s really the best choice for you.

US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%

US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent

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US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.

Source: Comex

Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers

Source: Nasdaq

Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.

Business Loans In Canada: Financing Solutions Via Alternative Finance & Traditional Funding

Business loans and finance for a business just may have gotten good again? The pursuit of credit and funding of cash flow solutions for your business often seems like an eternal challenge, even in the best of times, let alone any industry or economic crisis. Let’s dig in.

Since the 2008 financial crisis there’s been a lot of change in finance options from lenders for corporate loans. Canadian business owners and financial managers have excess from everything from peer-to-peer company loans, varied alternative finance solutions, as well of course as the traditional financing offered by Canadian chartered banks.

Those online business loans referenced above are popular and arose out of the merchant cash advance programs in the United States. Loans are based on a percentage of your annual sales, typically in the 15-20% range. The loans are certainly expensive but are viewed as easy to obtain by many small businesses, including retailers who sell on a cash or credit card basis.

Depending on your firm’s circumstances and your ability to truly understand the different choices available to firms searching for SME COMMERCIAL FINANCE options. Those small to medium sized companies ( the definition of ‘ small business ‘ certainly varies as to what is small – often defined as businesses with less than 500 employees! )

How then do we create our road map for external financing techniques and solutions? A simpler way to look at it is to categorize these different financing options under:

Debt / Loans

Asset Based Financing

Alternative Hybrid type solutions

Many top experts maintain that the alternative financing solutions currently available to your firm, in fact are on par with Canadian chartered bank financing when it comes to a full spectrum of funding. The alternative lender is typically a private commercial finance company with a niche in one of the various asset finance areas

If there is one significant trend that’s ‘ sticking ‘it’s Asset Based Finance. The ability of firms to obtain funding via assets such as accounts receivable, inventory and fixed assets with no major emphasis on balance sheet structure and profits and cash flow ( those three elements drive bank financing approval in no small measure ) is the key to success in ABL ( Asset Based Lending ).

Factoring, aka ‘ Receivable Finance ‘ is the other huge driver in trade finance in Canada. In some cases, it’s the only way for firms to be able to sell and finance clients in other geographies/countries.

The rise of ‘ online finance ‘ also can’t be diminished. Whether it’s accessing ‘ crowdfunding’ or sourcing working capital term loans, the technological pace continues at what seems a feverish pace. One only has to read a business daily such as the Globe & Mail or Financial Post to understand the challenge of small business accessing business capital.

Business owners/financial mgrs often find their company at a ‘ turning point ‘ in their history – that time when financing is needed or opportunities and risks can’t be taken. While putting or getting new equity in the business is often impossible, the reality is that the majority of businesses with SME commercial finance needs aren’t, shall we say, ‘ suited’ to this type of funding and capital raising. Business loan interest rates vary with non-traditional financing but offer more flexibility and ease of access to capital.

We’re also the first to remind clients that they should not forget govt solutions in business capital. Two of the best programs are the GovernmentSmall Business Loan Canada (maximum availability = $ 1,000,000.00) as well as the SR&ED program which allows business owners to recapture R&D capital costs. Sred credits can also be financed once they are filed.

Those latter two finance alternatives are often very well suited to business start up loans. We should not forget that asset finance, often called ‘ ABL ‘ by those Bay Street guys, can even be used as a loan to buy a business.

If you’re looking to get the right balance of liquidity and risk coupled with the flexibility to grow your business seek out and speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor with a track record of business finance success who can assist you with your funding needs.