Some people become so strapped for cash they resort to taking out a pay day loan to make ends meet. Pay day loans work by writing a check to the pay day lender post dated to a pay day. The pay day lender charges an exorbitant interest rate in exchange for this quick and easy loan. While using such a service may be appropriate in rare cases, if you have begun to rely on them, it is a sign that you are in serious financial distress. Rolling over pay day loans one month to the next will cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars in interest payments. If you are trapped in this cycle, bankruptcy is probably an option you should seriously consider.
Pay day loans are general unsecured debt just like credit cards, medical bills, cell phone bills and car deficiencies. They are easy to wipe out in bankruptcy. If the pay day lender tells you that you can not wipe them out, do not listen. They may tell you that, because you wrote a check for this loan, you can be criminally liable for bad check writing if you do not pay it. That is not true. It is a crime to write a check to someone while making them believe you have the funds to cover it. A pay day lender knows you don’t have the funds to cover it when you write it, that’s the point. It’s fraud if you never intend to pay the loan back but otherwise it is a dischargeable debt just like a credit card bill.
You may want to close a bank account you have outstanding pay day loan checks written on if you plan on filing bankruptcy. Placing a stop payment on a check incurs fees and takes time. You should open a new bank account before you close the old one.