Short-term loans can lead to financial freedom

Jun 29, 2008

For six days, the editorial board of The Anniston Star has preached social justice and reminded you of your moral commitment to help those who need it most. Amen. No matter your religious persuasion or your political position, all good men should agree that part of our duty as those who are blessed is to give back to those who need blessing.

But the writers of this week's series have taken their calling a step further. They have taken a stand against an industry they know little about, an industry they have never used or needed. In their fervor to help the poor, they have launched a campaign to take away the financial freedom of the thousands of Alabamians who — for countless reasons — need a cash advance on occasion.

I am writing as a representative of Borrow Smart Alabama, a group of more than 225 Alabama payday and title-lending stores that have joined together to encourage the wise use of short-term loans and to help the public better understand our services.

The Star has spun quite a web of tales this week, pulling at your heart strings with stories of elderly and disabled people who have gotten themselves in trouble with short-term loans. So, indulge me while I share one of my own about an Alabama woman named Kim.

Kim was a registered nurse with a decent salary, but she hated seeing large chunks of her hard-earned paycheck go toward paying mostly interest on the credit cards she had run to their limits. Her ticket out of debt was the completion of a 26-month program to earn certification as a nurse anesthetist. She qualified for financial aid and found some scholarship money, but in order to finish school she had to cut back on her hours at work, which meant being short on her monthly bills. In order to keep her debt paid while working her way to financial freedom, she used short-term loans.

(Check out a video of Kim at www.borrowsmartalabama.com, where she will tell you that she "feels very strongly that she could not have fulfilled that dream without the service of the short term loan.")

Kim's story, along with several others you will find on the Borrow Smart Web site, are the sort of stories you never hear about short-term lending customers. It is also rare that you are told that the average cash advance customer is 39 years old with an annual salary of $41,000. Hardly the disabled and elderly "victim" we are painted as serving.

Source : http://www.annistonstar.com/