I come from a "payday-loan poor" family, and spent a good chunk of my adult life there myself. It's hard, but people with comfy salaries paternalistically taking options away because they know better really agitates me.
High interest-rate loans are one thing. Forcing payment for the company's lawyer is another. Broad-spectrum mailing of loan offers with (what looks like) no assessment of ability to pay is quite another still.[1]
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[1] Or even worse, selecting for people who they know can't pay immediately, so they can rack up the margins/fees. That would be one of the typical definitions of "predatory."
There aren't obvious better options, once you strip the business down to its core of high-risk credit. It's a business that no matter how efficient is going to come with high interest rates.
The obviously predatory marketing practices need to be stopped. But the core of the business here is never going to be a nice one. :/
Absolutely, I just think it's a shame that there aren't alternatives available. Normally I'd assume that interest rates are that high because that's what is required to remain profitable while lending to the market, but I can't help wonder if consolidation and wall street ownership means there's a large profit margin and some gouging happening.
I don't want him to need the loan, but I respect him enough to trust him with the option. I'd prefer a competitive marketplace for his loans to shaming the concept of an alternative financial system, and I absolutely would not put it past capital to collude to keep the interest rates high.
I don't know that, though, since these are risky loans. Case in point, this very dude didn't pay it back.