Psyched on Development
For a long while, I always felt a little timid when explaining to people what it is I exactly do for a living. Because of the recent stigma generated by the mass media, payday loan merchants are despised and viewed as “loan sharks”. Being the smart person that I am, I never bought into the mass media movement for the nationwide shut-down of payday loan institutions.
I’ve seen the money I’ve saved for my borrowers.
I know the difference between paying 20 dollars to borrow 100 dollars, and paying the bank 150 dollars for over drafting 5 transactions in the sum of 100 dollars.
I know the difference between 500% APR, and 2000% APR.
When I picked up the Oregonian (a local city wide newspaper) and read up on the latest movement in the crack down of payday loans, I always thought to myself: “This movement isn’t for the people. APR caps sound great for the consumer up front, but the realistic result is total annihilation of the payday loan industry in Oregon”. Then I would think to myself: “This movement is funded by the banks and credit unions because the payday loan industry is biting into their NSF and over draft revenues.”
Well boys and girls - The time has come where proof of my hunch has surfaced into reality. According to one of my friends in the payday loan business, recent proof has shown that banks and credit unions loose 20% to 60% of their revenues when in the presence of unregulated payday loan institutions. 60%!!!! What this should tell you is one thing: Our financial banking institutions are the REAL predatory lenders of today. Not only are they charging our customers up to 5 times the amount of interest we charge for our loan products, but they are also MONOPOLIZING the financial market to make sure payday lenders like us are unable to give our consumers options. If you want to read more about this (which you should) check out Jerry’s Payday Loan Industry Blog.
With all this said, I feel like the technology me and my team is developing is supporting a GREATER cause. I firmly believe that the Empower software platform will bring us (the payday loan industry) together to form a stronger more resilient industry through business to business communication and networking. We have conscience on our side people, its just a matter of communicating that to the mass majority!