For all the financial flak that faxless payday loan companies receive - being accused of taking advantage of the poor, for instance - it's nice to come across a story that shows a different side to these businesses.

Here's a perfect one.

In a joint effort to help students recognize the importance of financial literacy, ACE Cash Express, Junior Achievement and the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner are distributing one million book covers to various schools across Texas.

"Our goal through this project is to make a difference in Texas schools by providing financial literacy lessons to help students learn how to successfully manage their money," said Jay Shipowitz, President and CEO of ACE Cash Express. "Focusing on financial literacy early in the educational process is a key step toward helping students to better manage their money."

Quite the opposing view from how many assume a provider of cheap payday loans would think.

The educational book covers include two financial literacy lessons, both designed to engage students on basic money handling and savings skills. By targeting elementary schools, the book covers help instill a sense of financial responsibility at an early age.

"Building sound financial skills should start early," said Leslie Pettijohn, Commissioner of Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner. "Teaching kids to save is an invaluable lesson that can provide the foundation for lifelong positive money management."

The book covers are being donated to over 1,200 schools throughout Texas, and include both English and Spanish lessons. They were created as part of a recent collaboration of ACE Cash Express, Junior Achievement and the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner to help bring more financial literacy programs into classroom.

Maybe someday these children will NOT need to apply over the Net for a payday loan online.

"Junior Achievement's core purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy," said Linda Schoelkopf, President, Junior Achievement of Dallas, Inc. "Working with ACE Cash Express and the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner to provide financial lessons to younger students is a great addition to our regular volunteer-driven curriculum. We are proud to be a part of the effort to reach children throughout the state of Texas."

Cash Now is keeping busy. The payday loan company has expanded its technological reach - and is now expanding its cash advance business into the Asian market.

Mainly focusing on China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the new faxless payday loan operations involve the use of the following, newly registered domain names:

• Cashnow.hk.cn
• Cashnow.mo.cn
• Cashnow.tw.cn
• Cashnow.org.cn
• Cashnow.net.cn
• Cashnow.com.cn

Initially these domain names will point to the company's main portal www.cashnow.com until the new sites are developed in the Chinese language.

The Asian payday loan online expansion will be managed by the company's office in Adelaide Australia.

"Cash Now has been in Australia since 2003 and the company has dabbled into Asian expansion for some time now, this is a natural evolution and process," said John Falting, Cash Now's President and Director of Operations in Adelaide Australia.

The faxless payday advance company plans to launch Cash Now in Tokyo in March 2007. There will be a Franchise Show & Business Expo held at that time.

"This is the largest meeting place for franchises/new business companies and people who are looking for business opportunities" said Garr Winter Cash Now's Director of Marketing. 

Mr. Winter added that the company is "very excited" about the opportunity to offer helpful payday loans and cash advances overseas. 

If you live in Hutchinson, Kansas and need fast cash, don't worry: chances are high there's a quick payday loan store near you.

The city's 14th payday loan business is under construction (pictured) at the northwest corner of 30th and Plum. It's the newest of four Speedy Cash locations in Kansas - with the other three in Wichita - and it should be open by mid-October, weather permitting, said Mike McKnight, vice president of Speedy Cash Inc.

The fact that military payday loans are coming under fire in the state hasn't stopped 46 separate cash advance locations - not counting the one under construction in Hutchinson - to spring up there.

"We were excited," McKnight said about bringing the business to Hutchinson. "We looked at the competition up there. We thought there was an opportunity for us to come in and provide our model of good service and a clean atmosphere."

Speedy Cash isn't the only company to get dollar signs in its eyes when looking at the city. A mix of local and national businesses offer bad credit payday loans in Hutchinson, with one for every 2,925 people, according to 2005 U.S. Census estimates.

John Rabenold with the corporate offices of Check 'n Go - an Ohio-based company with two Hutchinson locations - gave an answer similar to McKnight's about opening up in the city.

"I guess the easiest answer is we felt that that area was underserved and the consumers would be better off with our service available to them to use for short-term cash flow situations or to avoid costlier penalties and bounced-check fees charged by banks and retailers and the like," Rabenold said.

Licenses for the two Check 'n Go locations to operate in Hutchinson first were issued in 2004 by the Office of the State Bank Commissioner. Jon Daveline, president and CEO of the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn't have any inside knowledge about the influx of cash loan businesses into Hutchinson.

Mike Strong, owner of Mike's TV, Furniture and Appliance, 124 West 2nd, runs five stores in Kansas that offer payday loans to customers. He started offering fast payday loans about three years ago as a service to his existing customers. He said he doesn't think the booming industry in Hutchinson is the exception, but rather the rule.

"The little bit of traveling I do, I don't think it's unusual," he said. "It's just the time when they decided to come to Kansas. I think a lot of these places … it's a volume business, I guess.

You don't make a lot of money on one loan. I think a lot of those are public-type companies. I think they're just trying to make money and are trying to do so on a volume basis."

In July, payday advance loan legislation finally went into effect in Michigan had few rules to control the industry. Meant to control the industry, this new set of industry-backed state regulations went into effect have helped to weed out some of the more predatory players.

Steve Leach, who operates 50 Instant Cash Advance offices around Michigan, said his Grand Rapids-based payday loan company was actually glad to see the regulations.

"We were unhappy with some of the operators out there who were charging 30 percent more (in two weeks) than we were,'' he said.

The new legislation allows cash loans to possess an annual interest rate of up to 375 percent on a $250 loan, plus various fees. It also limits the number and amount of loans consumers can take out and forbids threats of criminal prosecution against people who fail to pay.

But not everyone is pleased.

Jean Ann Fox, of the Consumer Federation of America, said the new law is unfortunate because Michigan already had a much more reasonable small-loan law on its books. It was just never enforced.

That law capped the annual rate on small, no faxing payday loans at 25 percent, allowing a loan-processing fee of up to 5 percent for amounts up to $250.

"They would have been better off to enforce the rule they had,'' she said. "If they felt they had a loophole, then close it.''

While Fox advises against ANY payday loan use, Advance America - the largest of the publicly held payday advance companies - said its average customer uses the service seven or eight times a year. He or she pays average fees of $55 per transaction with an average loan amount of $339. That works out to $330 to $440 in fees, on average, per year, per customer.

Payday advance business is booming: Jamie Fulmer, director of investor relations for Advance America, said the company offers a service millions of customers need. For many, the alternatives of credit card late fees, bounced checks or overdraft fees are far more expensive than the payday advance fees.

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The Times believes it speaks for everyone involved in the recent case of Arizona payday loan robberies when it asks the following question: Just what the heck were those clowns thinking?

In the end, it was a big red clown nose found in a towed vehicle that led to the arrest of the notorious "cash advance clowns," suspects dressed in clown suits with face paint and wigs during a series of recent payday loan store robberies.

According to the Tucson Citizen, the local Sheriff's Department said a man and three women were arrested. Michael C. Lipscomb, 20, was charged with multiple crimes: aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated robbery and armed robbery. Keianna S. Jamison, 18, was booked on charges of burglary, aggravated robbery and armed robbery.

Rounding out this insane clown posse were Lacarol R. Jamison, 20, arrested on charges of armed robbery, and Meika Marie Johnson, 32, booked on charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated robbery and armed robbery.

Tucson police were doing a follow-up investigation on a car towed to a private storage lot that matched the description of a getaway car in some of the fast payday loan robberies.

Detectives spotted a big red clown nose in plain view in the car. Officers tracked down the four and interviewed and arrested them shortly after. In the most recent robbery, a man entered ACE Cash Advance, 3955 E. Speedway Blvd., just before noon Wednesday, Tucson police said.

Wearing white makeup and a red wig, the suspect was armed with a gun and demanded money before fleeing with an undisclosed amount.

The first of the string of crimes involving pay day loans came back on the 10th of August at the Check 'N Go of Arizona, 4485 N. First Ave. In that case a pregnant clerk was held captive for 15 minutes while the robbers waited for a safe's time lock to open.

The Payday Loans at Loan Mart, 5095 N. La Cañada Drive, was robbed August 17, the Pima County Sheriff's Office says. The two suspects also wore white makeup and red wigs.

Dorer and Harkins said members of the group also are charged with a July 24 robbery at a Whataburger at 6504 E. 22nd St., and an August 8 attempted holdup at a Payday Loans at Loan Mart at 3901 E. Grant Road. Clown costumes were not worn in those cases and the August 8 robbery failed when a clerk locked himself in a back room.

Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Gary Anderson said the cash advance clowns are also under investigation in connection with an earlier sandwich shop robbery in Marana, Ariz. Throughout the spree, detectives say Lipscomb and Johnson were the ones dressed in clown suits.

In the August 8 payday loan robberies, the robbers shot clerks with BB guns, inflicting minor injuries. All we can say is thank goodness the cash advance clowns are off the streets. The Times would like to thank the law enforcement community for their hard work.

NOTE: Below is a letter we received, via e-mail, from a resident of South Carolina who was recently spurned by a payday loan company. He believes he was the victim of false advertising, and wants to have his opinion heard.

If you have a story or viewpoint you would like to share with the Payday Loan Times and its growing number of daily readers, please use the Contact Us form and share it. Vulgarity, dishonesty or personal attacks aside, nothing is off limits at the Times.

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Let me start off by saying that I do not believe the payday loan industry in general is quote unqoute [sic] evil. I am not an activist nor do I feel that most payday loan companies treat people unfairly. However, I do believe that a growing number of online sites take advantage of borrowers through false advertisements.

I've used payday loans for years.

I don't like to, no one does, but there are a couple stores in my town and they have always been up front with me about all the fees. I know what I am getting into.

I've probably gone 5-6 times total over the past three years, not a lot really when you think about it. My experience has been good up until this year when I applied for a payday loan online.

I wanted to save time and keep this private so I though [sic] I would try to get a loan online. What happened really, really makes me mad. First I filled out a form and heard nothing from the payday loan company. After 6 hours I tried again, then was told when the representative DID contact me that I had to fax in my application.

The ad on the site said faxless payday loans! These sites don't even tell you key pieces of information like, oh, you might need to fax in your info after all. I could not believe it but this actually happened to me.

I don't have a fax machine at home. Never have. Got no use for one. Had I know [sic] that I was going to have to do this I would have just gone to the payday loan store like I have in the past. All in all I could not get my cash until the following morning so this cost me at least 12 hours, not to mention some head aches.

I'm sorry, but when you need a personal loan like this, you are strapped. I don't want to get into the details of my personal life here but anyone who has applied knows that when you need cash NOW, it's kind of a big deal to get strung along and lied to.

Again, I'm not opposed to payday loans as a general rule. I just think people should know that these no faxing payday loan ads are not what they are cracked up to be. If you need a payday loan go to the store in person, you get better treatment and, the so-called technology is not worth it in the end.

Edward R. Parker

The movement to regulate military payday loans may be taking place in Washington, D.C., but that hasn't stopped its affects from being felt in California.

As The Daily Breeze reports, those involved in the battle area. Appealing to the Legislature's wartime patriotism and sympathy for soldiers trapped in a cycle of debt. They have help from Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu.

Lieu is pushing legislation to protect military families from being preyed upon by these allegedly cheap payday loan companies that often charge more than 400 percent annual interest.

"The military doesn't often come to the state Capitol to ask for help. They are doing that now in a time of war and I ask that we give them that help," said Lieu, a Democrat and former Air Force attorney who remains on reserve duty.

While Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the Assembly Bill 1965, spokesman Bill Maile said "the governor strongly supports efforts to increase protections for military personnel against predatory lenders."

We all do. Here's what the proposted bill would include:

• A 36 percent cap on the interest rate at of a military payday loan.

• A ban on ALL payday loan companies from using military insignias in advertising and from implying in advertising that they are endorsed by the armed forces.

• The prohibition of interest from accumulating when military personnel are deployed overseas, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan.

• The borrower also would have 30 days to start repaying the regular or faxless payday loan after returning to a U.S. base.

As the Department of Defense and the Pentagon take aim at this issue, hope is strong for the payday advance bill to pass.

Last week, we talked about an editorial in The Daily Press that found irony in payday loan robberies; the author wanted the cash advance practice to be banned outright in Virginia.

Now, a letter to the editor of the same paper backs up Tamara Dietrich's column. As we'll paraphrase, at least one reader feels just as strong regarding the issue of payday loans in the state:

Lobbyists have won big in this effort to rip off as many folks as possible without any legal consequences to themselves or the loan sharks they represent. Just look around; no fax payday loans have to be the fastest-growing business in the commonwealth.

Soon, every vacant building in town will house one of these General Assembly-sanctioned thievery shops. As Dietrich points out, doing the same act of robbing someone using a gun will land you in jail. I certainly agree with her and several of our General Assembly members that this unholy rip-off of our citizens must stop.

Charging over 300 percent interest to anyone is downright criminal, and that is what Del. Glenn Oder and others started out to stop, only to be sidetracked by legislative maneuvering that will water down the intended bad credit payday loan bill to a meaningless token act that is just as criminal as the original legislation.

I use the word criminal because it is just that, and the General Assembly needs to be held accountable for such destructive legislation. Allowing the Payday Loan Act to stay on the books in Virginia is an outright act of defiance by the General Assembly.

It is time for legislators to start listening to the public and stop catering to the lobbyists. It's a pity that it likely will require that massive push from the electorate to trigger such an act (the repeal of the aforementioned act) of moral fortitude from our representatives. But whatever is needed to put an end to payday advances in the state.

Roy Dunkum Jr., Newport News

Looks like it was one robbery too many for the cash advance clowns.

Just as we brought you news that another fast payday loan crime had been committed by men sporting clown attire, four arrests have been made in the case. The latest incident took place Wednesday at the Cash Advance at Speedway and Alvernon, while the costumed thieves struck the Payday Loans at La Canada and River.

Before that, they hit the Check 'n Go on First and Wetmore. Now, however, their days of clowning around (sorry) and taking cah for such payday advance loan establishments appear to be over.

Tucson police are still asking for help in finding two people who have been dressing up like clowns and robbing payday loan stores.

The Tucson Citizen reports that a third location has now been hit by the infamous "cash advance clowns." In the most recent incident, one man entered ACE Cash Advance, 3955 E. Speedway Blvd., just before noon on Wednesday.

Tucson Police Sgt. Decio Hopffer said that the suspect was wearing white make-up and a red wig. Armed with a gun, he demanded money from the payday loan clerk, then fled immediately after receiving it.

Not surprisingly, given the getup, he matches the description of the robbers in two other armed robberies of payday advance locations that occurred in the county last week, and in the city the week before.

The first heist took place on August 10 at the Check 'N Go of Arizona, 4485 N. First Ave. Then Payday Loans at Loan Mart, 5095 N. La Cañada Drive, was robbed August 17, according to Pima County sheriff's Deputy Dawn Barkman.

The two suspects were also wearing white makeup and red wigs — but this is clearly no laughing matter. No one has been injured in any of the robberies, but please, help law enforcement officials put these fast payday loan perpetrators behind bars. Anyone with information should call 911 or 88-CRIME.