When people think of short-term cash advances the first thing people think of is a shady mobster operating out of a city alley with his muscle “Bruno” standing behind him with a baseball bat for late payments. If illegal lending and violent debt collection methods are what define loan sharking, the label is clearly inaccurate.
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There are lenders in every industry that are predatory, and do not have the best interests of their clients at heart. Banks that give mortgages to people who buy houses they can’t afford, dealerships that sell cars that are too expensive for the people who buy them, and yes, there are payday lenders who give loans for more money than people should borrow.
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Today, payday lenders have numerous opponents in almost every state with a variation of the same message. “Payday loans are loan sharks”. A special interest group, Arizonans for Responsible Lending even launched a television campaign featuring a “Lenny the Loan Shark”, a fairly predictable ad that features a slick, greasy looking Italian guy. Before viewing this ad I may have made the error of assuming someone from Arizona was a New Yorker.
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