Fourteen states prohibit payday financing, calling it predatory. The government that is federal stepping in, too. But also for those that require the cash, you can find few choices.
At a highway junction outside town, a trio of outsized blue guitars installed on a telegraph pole face on the fertile farmlands associated with the Mississippi Delta. This crossroads is The Crossroads, where guitarist Robert Johnson traded his soul to the devil for musical genius in blues mythology. Today it is a stoplight on Highway 61, a sun-baked strip of discount malls, gasoline stations, fast-food joints – and half dozen shops providing fast money..
A high-school teacher, it’s a strip of debt and shame and heartache for Jennifer Williams. For a long time, she’d invest every payday going store to store, wanting to keep pace repayments, even while sliding deeper into financial obligation. At one point she owed thousands to nine pay day loan shops in three towns. Read More Payday advances a scourge, yet still a need