Mums Finance

Okay, so you might be thinking ‘haven’t we heard enough about these places?’ and fair enough, services offering these types of loans do seem to be popping up all over the place now but, as with everything in business, there is a huge difference between those which are of the fly-by-night variety and those which actually do provide a real and legitimate service to the community. And just how do you differentiate…? I tend to look for certain aspects with the main focus on looking to see if the company follows a set code of practice and code of ethics. A record of established service; yes, testimonials also help; how long has the company been trading and also just doing some general homework on the company’s background.

Following this little set of rules usually arms you with enough information to make an informed decision about whether or not to proceed with doing business with them.

However, let’s take a look at a particular company offering Pay Day Loans right now. It really pays to do this (if you will mind the pun); one tends to read about the bad apples and hear only the horror stories surrounding the practices in this industry, one thing that needs focusing on is a company that plays by the rules and offers a genuine service to it’s valued customers.

PayDay One distinguish themselves from many of their lesser competitors in what has become an alternative consumer credit market. Basically, the Pay Day loan offers an individual an option that the banks do not; a short term loan based on a term of days/weeks rather than months/years. As yet the banks refuse to offer such a service to the population, for various reasons, but – call me cynical if you like – I find it rather contradictory in that the banks will offer the funding and banking to the PDL companies themselves whereas they refuse the basic service to the loan customers. But that’s banks for you anyway…

The benefits you expect…

The customer approaching Payday One can be assured that they are no flighty offshore organisation; this company is based and licensed in the United States with branches covering thirty-three of the United States which gives them a higher profile and thus greater establishment than their competitors.  Their service ethic is customer-oriented, customer friendly and sympathetic.

The service you deserve…

The company prides itself on their philosophy that each branch is not so much a company, but rather a team. As a customer you are also regarded as the employer; they fail themselves if they fail you. They also recognise that many people seek their service to address a difficult period in their life and act to afford each individual respect and confidentiality. In achieving this customers are encouraged to take advantage of using their online application process; they offer the confidentiality of not having to sit opposite a face in a suit and suffer any embarrassment; nor the need to fax endless forms and a very fast 24 hour turnaround for payment of your funds.

Now for the BIG questions – how much, for how long and what about interest rates?…

Well, this is what it all leads up to in the end. Of course the figures have to be the number one concern, but you will find that PayDay One manage to keep those figures down well enough to make them not so much of a concern to you. Consider this; the average complaint about the payday loan industry naturally is the amount of interest charged by other companies and you have to be honest and agree that this is what puts the industry in a bad light from time to time.  However, PayDay One offer the lowest guaranteed interest rates on their State Licensed Cash Advances; this is what places them at the top of the tree in this industry.

On average a basic payday loan with other companies will go like this…

* you borrow $200 over 14 days; you pay back anything between $250-$290. Unbelievable eh?

* the longer the term over the four weeks the higher the rate you pay.

But with PayDay One…

* you are guaranteed the lowest interest rates (per your State according to the APR)

* example for California clients: borrow $200 over 14 days; pay back $235. Same rate applies to terms 10/21/31 days.

Do some checking around just as I have done and you will find that the company stands by it’s claims of offering the lowest rates around. Whereby they do have one thing in common with their competitors in that they offer the same product – a cash loan – the difference with PayDay One is that you also get real customer service added in…at no extra charge.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Well, that’s what women in Australia are doing right now – or will be doing in a few months time anyway. Back in 2004 the Liberal Govt decided that the birthrate was too low to sustain a working population in 30 years time  (I am not too sure about that one; Australia seems to have plenty of kids to me).

The then Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, urged Australian couples to have ‘ one baby for your husband, one for your wife and one for the country’. From the 1st July 2004 each couple was paid a lump sum amount of $3000 for each child born; the amount has since risen to it’s current payment of $4000 per child born and after July the amount will increase to $5000. Of course you can imagine how this went over – extremely well.

The lump sum payment is intended to ease the initial costs of having a baby in the first weeks and months but, of course, many parents have not exactly spent the small fortune on the child – in fact it has been acknowledged that the sale of luxury items such as plasma TV’s went through the roof after the introduction of this windfall. You can just imagine. And also there is the other side of the coin…the Govt has been criticised for encouraging teenage females to fall pregnant in order to get the cash; this in fact has been happening as it was only too obvious that it would. The Govt now has determined to pay mothers, 18 years and under, the lump sum in fortnightly instalments to take the temptation out of the equation.

There is currently a heated debate raging around this entire issue. Should the cash payment instead be converted to food vouchers; utility vouchers and possibly investment incentives in order to stop greedy parents spending the money on themselves rather than the child itself. And do not forget it will soon be five thousand dollars – have a baby each year and you really start to profit. As a good number of single females have chosen to do…

Drug addicted mothers too have been found to be buying drugs with the cash; alcoholic parents are drinking the money rather than buying food and clothing for the baby – handing such a large sum of instant cash to people who are not in the position to be responsible with it really has just exacerbated these already common social ill’s.

Personally I think it is a ridiculous amount of cash to pay out for one baby; it should be ‘capped’ for sure i.e. no more payments after the second claim; not too long ago the third prize in the NSW State Lottery was $5000 if that puts it into perspective. That’s an awful lot of third prize lottery winners! the thing is millions of parents, like myself, managed pre-2004 to raise our kids without this much money being thrown at us all at once – and that also mean’t we didn’t have the luxury shopping sprees that new Mum’s now have when they get out of hospital.

But the new Labour Govt, while it decides how to best deal with the future handling of this payment and will hardly scrap it (it’s one hell of a vote winner), it must come up with a better scheme to ensure that those babies born end up benefiting from the allowance…rather than the proprietors of electrical goods stores and Gucci boutiques.

Popularity: 25% [?]