Kansas Town Welcomes Abundance of Payday Loan Stores
By J.J. CameronPayday Loan Writer
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."
