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 1 Check Cashing — Basic Story

When people work, they get paid with a paycheck. Many times, the paycheck is not given until the end of the
month. Sometimes people need the money before the paycheck is available.
In order to get money, some people use a store that will give them money. It is money that will be taken from a
person's paycheck when it comes. This way, a person can spend some of the money before the end of the
month.
These stores that lend out money ask that they get paid extra for their services. In fact, many of the stores charge
large amounts of money for their services. So when a person gets a loan from them, they will have to pay the
store a very large sum of money plus the money they borrowed. When you owe a lot of money, you are in debt.
The people who make the laws want to change that. They think that those people who have to pay so much
money back are losing too much of their money. When that happens to poor people, they never seem to get out
of debt.
The people who make the laws want people to be able to pay back the borrowed money slowly. They want
people to be able to make regular payments. They also want to make the stores ask for less money for their
services. The stores think it is the job of the people who borrow to get themselves out of debt. The stores do not
want people to make payments.

 2 Check Cashing — Full Story

Check cashing stores make big bucks on payday loans at extremely high interest rates, which often end up
hurting consumers. State lawmakers have a plan to help ease that financial burden.
Hundreds of stores offer those in need cash loans until payday. A $200.00 loan cost $30.00, the charge is $30
each two week extension thereafter. For some people, using a payday advance loan doesn't solve their money
shortage. They simply get in a money pit that makes it tough to pay their way out debt.
Debra is one customer who needed money for bills and Christmas gifts. She paid interest only, never touching
the loan principal. She says, "'I ended up having to get help from someone to pay the loan. The debt can add up
after a while and I ended up in a rut that was hard to get out of."
State lawmakers want stores to lower interest rates from 15% to 12% and allow borrowers to pay in four
installments. This will allow them to get themselves out of this debt spiral. Loan stores say that the consumers
need to take more responsibility for making their debt and should go elsewhere if they need long-term loans.
Consumers like the lawmaker's idea and like others, wonder if they would ever have enough cash to pay back
the debt. Loan stores support a bill that would allow lower interest to 12% rates, but unlike Senator Don
Peralta's bill it would not allow an extended period repayment time.

 3 available

able to be used

 4 borrow

to ask someone to loan you something for a while

 5 debt

something you owe and must pay back

 6 money

what people use to buy things

 7 month

a period of time - there are 12 months in a year

 8 paycheck

a check someone earns for working

 9 regular

repeated consistently

 10 services

things people will pay money to have done for them

 11 spend

to use money to buy things

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