When you hear the words “Payday Loan” what comes to your mind?

1. Do you think of an industry out there taking advantage of consumers?
2. Or, do you think about an industry providing people with relief and peace of mind during this financial crisis?

Most people would say answer a.  But is that true or do we need to educate ourselves regarding this part of the financial industry?  Who are the people that need these payday loans and do they have other options?

According to www.census.gov the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, which was up from 14.3 percent in 2009.  In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, which was up from 43.6 million in 2009.

Those are staggering numbers.  People are having a hard time making ends meet. From 2009 to 2010 an additional 2.6 million people were at poverty level.  Where did they come from?  Middle Class families?  Low Income families?   Who is out there helping them get back on their feet?  The banks?  With the foreclosures on homes, the increased account fees, overdraft fees and high credit guidelines… what do you think?

What sort of monthly expenses do all of us face? Rent/Mortgage, utility bills, insurance, car payment, food allowance just to name a few.  If you are running out of money at the end of the month what would you sacrifice?  Your electric bill?  Your rent?  Your car loan?  Or just overdraft your bank account?  All of those choices involve late fees or overdraft fees and may incur being harassed by credit agencies or having your electricity turned off, being kicked out of your home or having your vehicle repossessed.  None of those sound like viable solutions to me.

According to www.wikipedia.org the definition for a payday loan is “a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until his or her next payday.”   That is truly what a payday loan is there for.  Many times you will hear payday opponents talk about high interest fees, but when you research these fees in comparison to bank charges and late fees of missing necessary payments and/or possible repossessions/foreclosures/losing electricity, going hungry etc. – which sounds better to you?

So before we judge the financial institutions giving payday loans or the people receiving such loans – let’s make sure that we look at the situation from all angles, and form an educated decision.

Just when things were hopefully starting to try and go in the right direction, it seems that there might be a change in that “positive” direction with our housing market. Reuters is reporting that 49 states in our nation have their attorney generals investigating allegations that there were banks not following the proper foreclosure procedures. Alabama was the only state in our nation to not pursue investigations into the lenders practices. No one is sure why that is at this time.
Some banks are not admitting to doing anything wrong, however Bank of America has currently halted any evictions for the time being. Other banks are not admitting any wrong but they are saying they followed the correct protocol in order to foreclosure on homes. What affect is this sort of controversy having on our economy? Of course when things are going right, or there is an election coming up, there are going to be people pointing fingers at each other. However, the question really is, did our nations mortgage lenders try to cut corners on processing foreclosures? If so, why?

Going to your favorite shopping website could become something that will become a little more “friendlier” user experience. With recent issues with companies that are partnering up with online retail shopping sites, there has been some complaints by consumers that don’t like what happens on their shopping sites. Many shopping sites in the past have partnered up with companies that privide offers to consumers throughout their shopping experience, however many of these offers are not very clear to the consumers. Because there is not alot of clarity to what the consumer is clicking on, many consumers click on offers that they had no understanding of what they were doing. Many consumers have complained to the online shopping sites, causing the shopping sites to discontinue these partnerships. Yahoo Finance points out some things to do to protect yourself online:

1. Use your credit card, not your debit card. There is better financial protection for you by the bank if you use a credit card versus the debt card.
2. Be careful what you are clicking on. If you are on an online shopping site, ignore and pop ups or offers that appear on your screen. Clicking on these offers could cost you even more money!
3. Watch you credit card bills. Banks mess up, just like we all mess up with accidentally clicking on things, so review your credit card bill each month to make sure every charge is legitimate. If not, contact your credit card company immediately to dispute the charge.

Leadpile works with partnerships where we potentially offer secondary offers to our consumers filling out our forms, however we never utilize any offers that are pre populated or are deceiving. There is a loose loose situation if companies are doing this negative sort of lead generation. So pay attention to what you are clicking on online!

As if banks and credit card companies aren’t charging enough these days Bank of America has decided to test new pricing models. BOFA expects to lose $4.3 billion in revenue as a result of the new federal restrictions on bank and credit cards.

How do they plan on recovering some of this loss? By charging its customers for not using their cards of course. Customers who do not use their cards a certain number of time a month, conduct all their banking electronically or do not maintain a minimum current balance will be charged more then other customers. For example, customers who want paper statements will be charge $8.95 per month.

It will be interesting over the next few months to see the estimated ½ dozen new pricing packages BOFA will roll out and which ones will remain permanent.

Many of us wonder at what point will the economy start heading in a positive direction again? One big indicator of this will be with the housing market. Unfortunately, reports are showing that this summer there was actually an increase in the number of homes that went up for sale. This is not a good sign when the potential number of home buyers went down. NPR is reporting there are 4 million homes up for sale right now and an additional 600,000 or so homes that the banks have not put on the market yet to sell. This is astounding, but why are there so many homes just “sitting” there and not being put on the market to sell by the banks?
It seems that banks have a few reasons that they would be holding off on flooding the housing market with additional homes for sale. One reason is that banks are just having a hard time keeping up with all the foreclosures they are having to process AND they don’t want to inundate the housing market with all these homes for sales, which will in turn create lower sale prices. Supply and demand will create even more drops in the sale prices these homes are going for. This is not something the banks want to experience. So I guess the bottom line is, if you have not recently taken advantage the homes that are out there for sale at a reduced price, now might be a good time because there might be even more homes being put on the market to sell. When will this end????

Times must be tough if one of the world’s largest retailers is planning on offering small business loans. MSNBC is reporting that Wal-Mart is teaming up with a lender to offer small business loans to some of our nation’s businesses. So, is the motive behind something like this to promote businesses to spend money at their stores? If that is in fact the case, is that really a bad idea?
The retail giant is reporting that in a recent survey, they conducted with their business clients, a large percentage of them were rejected for business loans. Therefore, in a effort to capitalize on these “unhelped” businesses, Wal-Mart teamed up with Superior Financial Group to offer these businesses a small business loan.
Good idea or not? If our “traditional” banks are not lending to consumers and businesses, is it really a conflict of interest to have a retail giant want to jump in and help? There seems to be no strings attached for these businesses and being required to only shop at Wal-Mart stores, however they are offering a discount on the Sam’s Club membership. Sounds like a good idea to me……

July is fast approaching for banks and their inability to charge overdraft fees to debit card consumers who use their debt card with not enough funds. In the current scenario, debit card consumers can have a transaction go through even if they do not have the funds available in their bank account, and then pay for it with high dollar overdraft fees. With this new federal reserve law that goes in effect for new debit card consumers in July (and in August for current banking customers) will not allow banks to charge overdraft fees to consumers that did not opt in for overdraft protection. In July’s scenario the consumer’s transaction will be denied versus processed and then charged high overdraft fees. This is now causing banks to scramble on how to recover from having all these “FREE” checking account offers they have in place. Where will the banks now make up for this lost revenue?
Is this really different than what a payday loan is? Why are banks not going through the same scrutiny as payday loan lenders are going through? Oh wait maybe the

We all know that there are a lot of states in our nation that have some sort of payday legislation, however how many of the laws that have been implemented in these states really created a better situation for the consumers? Consumers have limited resources on getting short term loans, so why does this industry continue to be put under a microscope?
To make matters worse (or better), many critics in the payday loan industry are now focusing their efforts on our nation’s banks. For example, The Minnesota Independent is reporting that many banks are offering advancements on their paychecks. In normal circumstances this sort of “advance” would not be in question, however banks are being able to avoid the scrutiny AND payday legislation that the payday lenders are unfortunately having to face.
So should our nations banks be able to provide “temporary” loans based on a consumer’s paycheck without the same regulations as payday lenders? These loans are very much needed by the consumers, so if the banks are even providing them, why should they not be treated the same just because they “sugar coat” what they call them?

Opening a checking account with no required balance or no monthly service fees may be something that is soon going to be history. With the suffering economy, there has recently been lots of discussion and controversy surrounding overdraft transaction fees, as a new federal regulation is expected to eliminate them. To make up for these losses in revenue the banks are looking into adding additional fees to checking accounts to help fill the gap.
According to Bankrate.com effective July 1st overdraft coverage will be an opt-in service. “Banks that offer overdraft, or bounce, protection will send opt-in notices to customers explaining the service. Banks will not be allowed to charge a fee for paying an overdraft that occurs because of an ATM transaction or a one-time debit card transaction unless the customer agrees. The rule does not apply to overdrafts that occur through the use of checks or ACH transactions such as bill pay.”
Overdraft fees have affected millions of people during this hard time and often times can be looked at as making a hard situation harder. Here at LeadPile we connect consumers possibly needing help to avoid banking overdraft fees or late payments with payday loan lenders who can loan money for a period of time to get them through. We will keep an eye on any new developments with this and let you know when changes occur!

Many think of the new year as a time to start fresh and put the past behind you. This way of thinking may work in some circumstances, but in real life issues that is not always the case. Why you ask? Right when Americans think that the economy has hit rock bottom, it seems as if trends are going to dip down even further into quarter one of 2010. Homes are still expected to foreclose, banks are still going to hesitant about lending, and bailouts have still not personally touched consumers. With America still being on the downtrend, it is not a surprising that many consumers are still saving and spending less (either by choice or necessity).
It seems as if consumers are no longer embarassed, or think they are too good for using coupons, considering the redemption rate of manufacturer coupons were up 26% in the first three quarters of 2009. That is one of the many methods that consumers are utilizing to save a little money, along with not buying as many non-food items, going out for meals, and buying store brand products. Also, consumers have made changes like eating more chicken than beef because it tends to be less expensive.
With all consumer price cutting and shoppers being more aware of their purchases, are there any companies on the rise? Of course there are! As stated above, store brands are bringing in more revenue and are making sure that their shelves are stocked with their items. In some cases a store band product may be several dollars less expensive. Other types of companies that are doing well right now are the super stores (Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, ect), dollar stores, and some online retailers.
Even though there are a lot of companies still in a down turn, it is nice to see that other companies and brands that may not be as popular, are now having THEIR time to shine.

Almost everyone goes to the ATM to take out cash on a regular basis. Most of the time we do not even think about the task because it has become second nature. But have you ever found yourself in a situation where you need cash and you can find every other banks ATM, but not yours? It is not a big deal going to an ATM other than your own until you see that they are going to charge you around $3.00 to complete your transaction. Then on top of that your bank sometime charges you additionally for banking elsewhere. Over time all those fees can really add up!
Is anything currently being done to lower the fees or get rid of them at all? Currently, the Federal Reserve is reviewing the matter of the rising fees. This all started to come to the service when Bankrate.com found that out of network bank fees rose 12.6% from last year. Where every dollar counts these days, it would be great if the bank fees were eliminated or at the least, decrease. It should not cost an individual $5.00 to take out $20.00.
Here are some useful tips of how to avoid these fees:
1. Only withdraw money from your OWN bank
2. Use your debit/credit card
3. Get cash back when you are at the store
Maybe we should all go back to the old school way of banking… use a piggy bank!

The FDIC has released a report showing 30+ million people have little or no access to banking services. Unfortunately, this study is also highlighting the fact that many of these consumers are poor, immigrants or minorities. According to NPR news, “In all, 25.6 percent of U.S. households either lack bank accounts or use payday loans, check-cashing services and other costly alternatives to traditional banks, according to the survey.
The report is part of an FDIC effort to bring the so-called “unbanked” into the financial mainstream.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said access to a bank account gives households “an important first step toward achieving financial security.” Vulnerable families need the ability to save for emergencies and borrow on affordable terms, she said in a statement.”
The one thing that really needs to be pointed out about this report is the fact that it talks about many people who do not have banking services, yet they are using services such as payday loans. In reality, a consumer generally can not get a payday loan if they do not have a checking account. There might be some lenders that allows no bank account, however most do require it. So, I am not sure payday loans should be in this article when speaking about the “unbanked” consumers??????