If you're caught up in a payday loan nightmare with no relief in sight and are wondering what you might be able to do to end it now, you have a couple of options.
Investigate a Payday Debt Resolution Service
First, consider contacting a payday debt resolution company to ask for assistance. Now keep in mind that payday debt resolution is different from a debt consolidation company. Debt consolidation companies will take your current financial obligations and dump them into a single loan amount so that you are making one combined monthly payment; unfortunately usually without reducing your overall payday loan obligation.
On the other hand, paydayloan debt resolution is specific to the payday loan industry and works to help resolve your payday loan debts by negotiating the total amount you owe in payday loans and reducing your overall PDL debt. Companies such as Relief, LLC, offer payday loan borrowers the opportunity to actually find cash advance relief.
Check Out the Extended Payment Plan (EPP)
Another option is the extended payment plan. Reputable payday lenders who belong to the Community Financial Services Association (CFSA), created in 1999 to "ensure consumer confidence in, and long-term success of, the payday advance industry," are obligated to adhere to the best practices of the payday loan industry. One of these very important best practices is the extended payment plan.
Keep in mind that while some states do not permit implementation of the EEP, other states - Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Washington - actually require lenders to provide extended payment plans.
With an EPP borrowers who are unable to repay their payday loan based on their original contract can opt to repay the advance over a longer - extended -- period of time as long as it complies with individual state law.
An EPP requires you to sign an amendment to your original payday loan by the close of business on the last business day before your payday advance is due. You can then pay the balance of your payday loan in four equal payments coinciding with your pay date without risk of additional financial obligation or threat of collection as long as you don't default.
Now here's the kicker. If you default on an EPP, payday lenders may charge you an EPP fee as well as accelerate the payments on the remaining balance of your outstanding debt.
Selecting the Best Option for You
Now that you know that you have options besides putting up with the ongoing harassment that some payday lenders will put borrowers through, it's a matter of deciding which one will work for you.
If you can commit to making four equal and successive payments without default in order to eliminate your payday loan debt and it's legal in your state, it just might be the right choice for you.