Thinking about applying for a payday loan? Make sure you can trust your source. Case in point:

Vickie Frasure, 46, of Buckland Avenue, pleaded no contest this week to 40 counts of forgery after prosecutors said she falsified checks at a local payday loan lending establishment.

The former manager at Ohio Payday Advance, Frasure, was accused of processing falsified cash loan applications and forging checks between December 2001 and March 2003. The totall amount she was accused of stealing? $30,000.

While avoiding jail time, Frasure will spend three years on probation. She'll also be required to pay restitution to the victims during her three-year probation period. The first payment is due next month.

Police said Frasure was in charge of processing short-term, high-interest payday loans for customers. After the customers had repaid their debt, Frasure used personal information from the company computer to create new payday loans in their name before forging the checks.

The scam was discovered when a customer tried to obtain a new payday advance, but was denied because records showed that person already owed money from a previous payday loan.

The Attorney General's Office of Saipan — the largest island and capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 15 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean — is attempting to put a local payday loan firm out of business, according to the Saipan Tribune.

The department secured a court order from Judge David Wiseman last Thursday that effectively puts EC Payday of Tinian out of business. Permanently.

This comes after the allegations that the company committed violations of the Consumer Protection Act on several occasions. The agency allegedly charged consumers as much as 24 percent of their forthcoming paycheck in exchange for instant cash, which it issued in the form of short-term payday loans. That's as much as 62 times higher than the amount allowed under the Commonwealth's law.

In addition, the Attorney General alleged that the cash advance business failed to disclose federally mandated credit terms on the loan documents such as the APR, and the amount financed. This created a strong likelihood that consumers would be confused or not understand the full extend of the instant payday loan.

In addition to shutting the business down, the court ordered the payday advance firm to pay limited restitution to 157 separate consumers who can expect money orders shortly. The court also ordered the business to pay the CNMI Treasury $35,000 in civil penalties.

"This is a win for consumers," said Attorney General Matthew Gregory. "We want to send a strong signal to all businesses that this office intends to enforce the usury and consumer protection laws of this Commonwealth. We will not tolerate predatory lending practices, especially in these tough economic times when consumers are particularly vulnerable to offers of a quick cash loan."

Gregory promised more enforcement actions as needed.

Those are ConsumerReports.org aren't pleased with military payday loans. To paraphrase a recent editorial: 

U.S. troops are not only under attack in Iraq and Afghanistan; they’re being ambushed at home by predatory cash advance lenders in communities near army, air force, and naval bases, according to a recent study.

“There’s an interesting divergence between the glowing pro-military rhetoric we hear about service to our country and the way our military men and women are being treated at home by these abusing businesses,” says Steve Tripoli, co-author of the National Consumer Law Center report on businesses that victimize members of the armed forces and veterans.

Military men and women are plagued by quick cash loan lenders who advance small sums until payday and levy exorbitant fees and interest rates as high as 900 percent per year; used-car dealers who sell and finance overpriced junkers; and “title pawn” lenders who use a borrower’s car title as collateral for high-priced short-term loans.

Some lenders require borrowers to postdate their checks, and if a check bounces, a lender may keep redepositing it electronically, piling on insufficient-funds fees, which could boost the cost of a payday loan by hundreds of dollars, says Capt. Dave Faraldo, director of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society serving the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.

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Payday loan companies spring up wherever consumer traffic is heavy, which means Norfolk, Va., in this case, reports the Virginian-Pilot.

“We’re located in malls and near big-box retailers because that’s where our customers are,” said Wayne Covert, a V.P. at Check into Cash, Inc., a Cleveland, Tenn., lender with 21 stores in Hampton Roads, Va.

The proliferation of payday lenders in and around Norfolk has been hard to miss. Since 2002, when the state opened its doors to providers of the short-term loans, the Virginia payday loan business has boomed, with stores opening in several shopping centers and along major corridors such as Virginia Beach Boulevard, Little Creek Road and Tidewater Drive.

The City of Norfolk, however, is seeking to curb payday loan growth by barring new stores from opening in large shopping centers, and by requiring an exemption for lenders seeking to open stores in other commercial areas. Existing payday cash advance locales would be allowed to continue doing business.

The proposed change in Norfolk’s zoning ordinance also would apply to check-cashing firms, auto-title lenders and retailers of used merchandise. The change would exclude antique stores from the restrictions. Used-car dealers and pawn shops would not be affected.

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Those in the Golden State now have a new resource for instant payday loan information at their fingertips. 

The California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) has unveiled its new and improved website, Calreinvest.org. The site includes current, detailed information about the effects of payday advance lenders and check cashers, predatory mortgage lenders, tax refund anticipation loans and other financial predators in the state's low-income communities and communities of color.

The site also displays recent developments in CRC's work with California's major banks to make specific dollar and lending commitments to California communities, and to offer fair financial services in all neighborhoods. The most recent commitments, written by the banks, are posted on the site.

The new site is a wonderful tool for community groups, the media, consumers, policy makers and bankers alike. It includes CRC's latest reports, press releases and work against predatory cash loan lending and unfair banking and insurance practices. This is a state that has recently passed legislation against military payday loans and wants other individuals to have similar protection.

In order to better serve its clients, all EZMONEY stores will now have a partnership with PRBC, a national credit reporting service. 

Last November, Texas and Florida EZMONEY Loan Services began offering to report their customers' payday loan payment history, if so desired to PRBC. Because customer interest in the service has been high, EZCORP will expand the service to all of its 263 EZMONEY locations.

Traditional credit bureaus do not track or score payments of all no faxing payday loans, including those offered or brokered by EZMONEY. This history, along with other payment histories a customer may report to PRBC, creates a PRBC Bill Payment Score (BPS). This BPS can be used to supplement a traditional credit report and score; or, used in the absence of such a score to gain a more complete and accurate assessment of a client's creditworthiness. Neither EZCORP nor PRBC charge customers a fee to enroll in payment reporting or to make credit checks.

Joe Rotunda, EZCORP's President and CEO, said: "We are excited about the high level of interest in PRBC to date, and the opportunity to better serve our customers by helping them establish or rebuild their credit."

EZCORP is a quick cash loan lender to individuals who do not have cash resources or access to credit to meet their short-term cash needs. In 281 EZPAWN locations, the company offers non-recourse loans collateralized by tangible personal property, commonly knows as pawn loans. At these locations, the company also sells merchandise, primarily collateral forfeited from its pawn lending operations, to consumers looking for good value.

In 263 EZMONEY locations and 83 EZPAWN locations, the company offers short-term non-collateralized loans, often referred to as payday loans, or fee-based credit services to customers seeking loans.

About once a month, Leah Gabriel makes a trip to Advance America to take out a payday loan, according to a report in today's Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph.

“If I have a car problem, it helps me out, or if I need extra cash,” said the woman.

The situation is different for one Nashua man who earns $11 per hour and uses payday loans to cover his living expenses. The man, who asked that his name be kept private, also visited same the Advance America branch on Thursday. He has visited the payday advance loan center every other week for three years.

“It’s like a drug now,” said the man. “You can’t get out of it.”

He estimates that payday loans have cost him $2,600 a year in interest for three years. For instance, when he borrows $500 against his next paycheck, he has to write a check to the lender for $600 (the $500 he borrowed, plus $100 interest). He pays the 521 percent APR because he says it’s his only option. New Hampshire is the only state in the region without an interest rate cap on payday loans, and stories like the one above have become more and more common.

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Payday loans are not the most popular resources in Arkansas.

A handful of finance companies in the state are pushing for passage of a federal provision to eliminate the state's constitutional limit on interest rates charged for various loans.

The provision would allow automobile dealers, retailers and other non-bank companies, except payday loan lenders, to charge the same interest rates that banks in Arkansas can charge.The federal Regulatory Relief Bill that includes the Arkansas provision has passed the House, but was not included in a version that went to the Senate Banking Committee.

Dennis Jungmeyer, president of the Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association, and others have tried to get the provision passed for several years. It would not include payday loans, however, as many actually feel there should be more restrictions placed on these cash advances.

Many payday loan stores on Canada are being hit with lawsuits these days. The latest? Cash Store, Inc., which has seen an Ontario court conditionally certify a class action lawsuit against it.

The class action applies to any resident of Canada, outside British Columbia and Alberta, who got an instant cash loan from a Cash Store and who repaid the loan at the usual fee of between 22.5 and 25 per cent of the loan amount.

Rentcash said the certification was conditional on the plaintiffs giving the judge details on how the lawsuit's parties would be notified of the proceeding. In a news release, Rentcash said it would defend itself "vigorously" against the class action.

Rentcash is the only fast payday loan company in Canada that is publicly traded on the TSX. In the most recent quarter, Rentcash reported its revenues from its brokerage operations more than doubled to $31.1 million as the number of its stores also more than doubled to 332.

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According to The Daily Comet, the Florida Supreme Court recently withdrew an opinion that had voided arbitration clauses in payday loan/check cashing contracts because it was reversed in February by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Florida justices had ruled state courts should decide whether customer payday advance contracts are valid before arbitration provisions could be enforced, but their federal counterparts disagreed, finding that disputes first go to arbitration under federal law.

The case involved a lawsuit that John Cardegna, a Palm Beach County fire-rescue dispatcher, filed against Buckeye Check Cashing Inc. He alleged the $3,000 in fees he was charged for cashing and holding a $300 check for two years amounted to an illegally high interest rate.That issue was put on hold pending the dispute over whether it should be decided in court or through arbitration.

The Florida high court ruled 5-1 last year that it should go to court first for a ruling on whether the payday cash loan contract was valid. The federal justices reversed that decision 7-1, with Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent.