Consumer Alert: The Risks of Taking Out a Cash Advance

Many people get loans through CashAdvance.com as a means of getting themselves out of debt or to pay off emergency expenses such as medical bills and car repairs. A quick cash loan can be exactly what you need to get yourself out of financial trouble. Pay day loans, however, also come with certain risks that every borrower should be aware of.

During the early days of the payday loan industry, lenders were free of regulation and thus, some morally corrupt locations began charging extreme interest rates and heaping hidden fees on their customers. Many states responded by putting caps on the amount of interest a lender can charge. To find out what the specific laws are on payday loans in your state, visit the Consumer Resource section for the state in which you live.

While not at the levels of the past in most states, cash advances can still carry higher interest rates than other types of loans. These rates are set out in detail in the contract you sign with your lender. While the rate may not add a large amount of money to the amount you must repay, it can add up over time. In states where rollovers, or repayment term extensions, are allowed, interest rates, along with any late fees that may be assessed, can add a substantial dollar amount to the end price of your loan.

These fees can create significant problems for anyone who hasn’t mapped out beforehand exactly how they will repay their loan. In the most extreme cases, borrowers who didn’t budget their finances properly find themselves taking out quick cash loans in order to pay off another advance from a different lender. Be careful not to take out more than you can pay back. Cash advances are meant to get you out of money problems, not make them worse.

Finally, after applying for a payday loan, some customers have found that they receive an excessive amount of spam emails and letters as well as unsolicited telemarketing calls. The website they conducted business with may have unethical and sold their personal information to a data mining company. These companies buy the contact info from other companies in order to use it for marketing purposes. CashAdvance.com does not do this.

Check out The Scam Report, a scams community forum, if you have questions about possible predatory lending habits or scams you may have been involved in. Interact and get help from other users and learn about their experiences. For further information, contact scams@cashadvance.com. As a service to the user community, reported scam experiences may be used in advisories and alerts, though all personal information will be omitted.

A cash advance, also referred to as a payday loan or payday advance, is a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until the following payday. Cash advances are intended for short-term financial relief and do not constitute long-term financial solutions. CashAdvance.com is not a lender and does not make loans or credit decisions. CashAdvance.com provides a loan request service only and is not acting as a representative, agent, or correspondent for any service provider or lender. Consumers are encouraged to consult CashAdvance.com’s State Consumer Resource pages to learn more about the risks involved with cash advances and local laws and regulations governing cash advances.