People take out payday loans because they’re in a bad financial situation. Sometimes, your financial situation gets better and you just pay off what you owe to the payday loan company. And sometimes, the financial situation never gets any better.
Many people come to me because they couldn’t afford to make the payments on those payday loans. That’s not surprising, since the interest on those loans averages between 380% and 410% (at least on the ones I see here in my Dallas offices). Here’s a typical question I get from people who come in for a free consultation with me:
I got a very rude and angry call from a debt collector who handles collections for one of the payday loan companies that I have money from. He told me that CRIMINAL CHARGES would be brought against me because the check I gave them bounced and that it was a “theft by check” which they said is a FELONY. They also said that the contract I signed says I’m not allowed to file for bankruptcy and I will get in trouble if I try to file a bankruptcy case. Can I get arrested for not paying this payday loan?
The specific situation described usually will not qualify for the Texas theft by check statute because the payday lender will have taken a postdated check. Since the check is postdated, it cannot satisfy the statute’s requirement that you “represented” to the payday lender that the funds were actually in the account on the date it was issued.
The payday loan companies say these things all the time– scaring you is the only leverage they have to get you to pay them. I hear this same story from my bankruptcy clients almost every day. Many of them have several payday loans and are using the new ones they take out to pay off the older ones.
If you file a bankruptcy– either chapter 7 or chapter 13– the whole problem goes away. In fact, most all your debts will go away.
When you’re ready to get out from under the crushing debt load and begin a new debt-free life, contact Dallas bankruptcy lawyer Rustin Polk by clicking here. Tell our Appointments Coordinator, Kimberly, that you are a website reader and she will set you up with a free, no obligation appointment to learn how we can help you get out of debt.
I have this person calling me that said i owed $1800 for a payday loan that i do not remember getting,I called him back to set up pmt.arrangements and then he said i owed $3000.This was in the matter of 2 days the amt.went up $1200.He could hardly speak any english and what is a DV letter.
Excellent write-up although the loan companies neglect to talk about the bad parts of the whole deal upfront and prevent the situation from happening in the first place.
The Texas Attorney General had to sue some payday loan companies for sending letters saying that criminal charges were forthcoming, when no such criminal charges had been filed. Tons of payday loan companies do this, I guess they feel like being evil liars is the only leverage they have.
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2010/102910cashmax_pop.pdf
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2010/102910cashmax_sample.pdf
Here’s a Dallas Observer article by Robert Wilonsky discussing those bogus arrest threats–
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/11/texas_attorney_general_goes_af.php
WARNING!!! If someone representing a payday loan company says you have criminal charges,etc. It is probably a scam. I learned the hard way, after receiving a call about criminal charges,etc about a payday loan I didn’t remember. At first, I was so scared having never been in trouble. So I did send a total of $600 trying to take care of a 1200 balance. The receipt that I begged for was my first sign that something was wrong. It looked fake not from any business I’ve ever seen. Second, they couldn’t tell me any of my original debt account number or phone number. The company name they said I owed didn’t even exist! Fast forward till now. Since they have fooled me before now they won’t stop! They still call from time to time trying to scheme me again! Our government needs to do something about these folks!
I took out a payday loan from a company and got upside down on it. I started to get calls threatening me with criminal charges. When I finally decided to answer the phone I asked what was the name of the company that I took out the loan with and it was no where near the right name. I told the guy to stop calling but he never did. He even told me one time that he was sending a cop right away and my response was that I was at home waiting. Needless to say I started to tell them they had the wrong number but once in a while they sneak in a call hoping to catch me. Maybe some day it will stop.