Saw this article today, entitled Payday Loans Can Help You Save Your Mortgage from Foreclosure. Could not believe someone would write something so irresponsible. Let’s see, you can’t make the payments on the bills you have now, so of course the solution is to….get MORE debt! At a HIGHER interest rate! The author claims that the rate on payday loans is “nominal.” Think she has an agenda? You bet she does.

According to a study by the Center for Responsible Lending,  the average interest rate on payday loans in this country is 400%. Does that sound “nominal” to you? According to the CRL:

* Ninety percent (90%) of payday lending consumers borrow at least 5 times before they can repay their debt. And 62% of loans go to people who take at least a dozen loans out every year! The typical payday borrower pays back $793 for a $325 loan.

* Predatory payday lending now costs American families $4.2 billion per year in fees.

* The average loan is “flipped” nine times before it can be repaid. At a typical $52 per renewal, that $325 loan generates $468 in fees.

The  fees pile up because even though payday loans are marketed as short-term loans to be paid back in a couple of weeks, most borrowers can’t come up with the cash in that amount of time. So they take out a new loan to pay back the first one. The new loan amount is higher, so the problem grows with each refinance.

“Payday loans sink borrowers into debt that can be as difficult to escape as quicksand,” said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

So when it comes to payday loans, just say no. You can’t stave off foreclosure forever by borrowing what can’t be paid back–and you’ll just get yourself in deeper financial trouble than you’re already in.