Does Alicia Ingram need a faxless payday loan? She's only 22 years old, but she's already $27,000 in debt.

When Ingram graduates from Georgia State University this fall, her entry into adult life will begin with a slow crawl from student loans to solvency.

"I feel like that kind of hinders everything - where I'm going to live, how I'm going to live," says Ingram, who has delayed plans to attend graduate school. "It's having this burden of dishing out this money for something that I really hadn't expected."

Ingram is far from alone. Nationwide, those just graduating from college are surprised to find that early debts can have a far-reaching impact on the quality of their lives. As a result, quick payday loan use becomes more prominent in hopes of a fast fix.

Experts say this is especially the case for young women. Debt in America is nothing new. lds was $3,989 (in 2001 dollars). According to Tamara Draut, author of Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead, the trouble often begins with student loans. As females enter the workforce - making less money than their male counterparts - they may have to turn to payday advances to balance student loan payments with burgeoning social lives.

"These are such no-win scenarios," said Mary Ellen Garrett, first vice president of the Garrett Group, an Atlanta financial advisory team. "Debt is a phenomenon right now that is sweeping in droves, and I'm seeing it more in women than in men. Their biggest question is 'How do I get out of this?'"

The groundwork for debt may be laid in college or even earlier. Draut says the country's "debt for diploma" system has made borrowing one's way through college the norm.

"A generation ago, student financial aid was grant-based; now it is debt-based," Draut said. "You could work through the summer and pay for a whole year of college. That's not the reality anymore."

Meanwhile, more women are attending college than ever - they made up 56 percent of undergrads in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Subsequently, more women are graduating with student loan debt, an average of $19,360 in 2004, based on data from the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding cost-effective solutions to expand educational opportunity.

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The reasons of those who call Rosemarie Hayes for help vary. Some had a car break down, others missed paying a bill or two. Then, as The Bradenton Herald reports, they saw the advertisements promising fast, easy cash - an instant payday loan, as the case often is in these situations.

By the time they contact Hayes, a certified credit counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Central Florida, they've become trapped in a vicious cycle - a treadmill of debt. Although Florida passed legislation in 2001 limiting the dollar amount and number of faxless payday loans lenders could make to individual consumers - $500 maximum per loan and only one loan outstanding at a time - Hayes said people are circumventing the law by using providers on the Internet.

Payday loan laws in the Sunshine State: Florida requires that payday advance lenders access a state-run database to ensure that a person hasn't already taken out a loan. But payday loans obtained through the Internet and other nonreporting avenues don't show up on the database.

"The new laws state that they shouldn't have any more than one at a time, but that's not happening," said Hayes. "I've had clients with seven or nine payday loans, three and more with the same lender."

State law only allows for short-term payday loans, as providers are required to report what the loan fees would translate into on an annual basis. Nevertheless, the typical payday loan in Florida equates to an APR of more than 286 percent.

Making matters worse, those with outstanding payday loans also get hit with penalties from their bank and sometimes lenders if they are unable to pay the loan within the maximum 31 days set by Florida law and the lender deposits the check, Hayes said.

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The mess created by one Arkansas payday loan lender continues to get messier.

While a regulatory agency continues to gather evidence against an Dennis Bailey - who operated payday lending stores without a state license and was fined $1.3 million for the violant - store officials continue to harass customers who refuse to pay their low fee payday loans, said Peggy Matson, executive director of the Check-Cashers Division of the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies.

In June, the ASBCA ordered Bailey's 14 stores in the state to close, fined him and stated all transactions were null and void - but Matson said Bailey continues to collect cash advance loan payments illegally through BMB Finance, a West Plains, Mo., company. Bailey is appealing the agency's administrative order.

The ASBCA advised Bailey's customers to go to their banks and put a stop payment on their checks or electronic debits. Some customers who put a stop payment on their electronic debits found money still was being withdrawn because Bailey withdrew less than the amount put on the stop payment, Matson said. He's a slippery criminal.

Meanwhile, Harrison Fast Cash in Boone County, owned by Bailey, has re-opened and the agency cannot close the store because it also offers a budget phone service and money orders, Matson said.

Bailey had no comment, but his attorney, Paul Johnson of Little Rock, stated in an appeal that the ASBCA order violates the Constitution, was not supported by evidence and was an abuse of discretion. A Pulaski County judge has yet to rule on the appeal.

Moreover, in the case that won't end, Matson said two people, one of whom is Bailey's relative, have applied for a state license for the instant payday loan stores.

A payday loan company based in Overland Park has paid $519,088 to resolve an investigation into overtime pay violations.

The Kansas City Star reported that The U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division said QC Financial Inc. owed back pay to about 900 employees. Thse professionals finally received checks - covering the amounts owed them, which ranged from $22.08 to $3,589.29 per worker - based on pay that had been withheld from them for extra work.

Wage and Hour investigators reviewed the quick payday loan company’s pay practices from Jan. 1, 2004, to March 31, 2006, and found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“We cooperated with the Department of Labor investigation, and our agreement to pay overtime wages results from a 2004 change in the way the department categorizes managers at our smaller branch locations,” said Frances King, human resources director at QC Holdings Inc.

QC Financial is a wholly owned subsidiary of QC Holdings, which went public two years ago. Deann Alvarado, acting district director for Wage and Hour in the Kansas City area, said the case involved failure to pay time-and-a-half overtime pay to nonexempt salaried managers for time worked beyond 40-hour workweeks.

She said the payday advance company also failed to include bonuses when calculating overtime pay due nonexempt salaried and hourly workers. Generally, the law requires that nondiscretionary bonuses be included in calculations to determine pay rates for the purposes of calculating overtime. The company now pays overtime to all its branch managers, King said.

QC Financial employs more than 1,000 people in more than 550 business locations in 25 states. It began in the pay day loan business in 1992 and is one of the largest companies operating in that industry.

As the Department of Defense focuses on the issue of military payday loans across the country, one state has been cited as providing ample protection for armed forces members from these cash advances:

North Carolina. 

At the same time, the department says Congress and individual states could do more to prevent the practice of targeting troops with such faxless payday loans and regular payday loans.

The report, released this month, was requested last year by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Predatory lending includes practices such as bad credit payday loans, car loans, rent-to-own programs and other temporary loans that can charge service members triple-digit annual percentage rates.

But in 2001, North Carolina became one of a few states to prohibit payday advance lending companies. The study said the armed services should do more to educate service members about predatory lending practices.

It added that"education does not trump the marketing of these loans and the easy availability of quick cash with few questions asked." The report recommends that Congress and individual states put caps on annual percentage rates, require more disclosure, force lenders to consider borrowers' ability to pay and allow service members legal recourse in disputed cases.

Dole said she will look closely at the report's recommendations.

"This report presents a powerful picture of the extensive problems brought about by predatory lenders that target military families," she stated.

The senator said she plans to introduce legislation based on the department's report. The chairman of the Senate's banking committee, of which Dole is a member, has pledged to hold a hearing on the issue of military cash loans.

Actually, they are.

In less than a week, two payday advance loan businesses have been robbed by armed suspects disguised as clowns. Seriously. They were caught on camera and Tucson Police need citizens' help finding them.

Police say these payday loan burglars hit their latest target Wednesday, The Payday Loans on La Canada and River roads. Deputy Dawn Barkman stated:

"One was wearing a red wig, the other had on a black beanie and both had their faces painted mostly white in color."

Surveillance video shows the pair barging in and forcing the clerk to the ground. From there, they demanded money and left without a trace.

"These men painted their faces to the point that they were unrecognizable, we can't even tell if they're Hispanic or Caucasian," Barkman said.

Allegedly, the same instant payday loan thieves pulled the same stunt here just last week. This time, a pregnant clerk was held at gunpoint for at least 10 minutes at the Check and Go on 1st and Wetmore. The suspects crouched behind the counter pointing semi-automatic weapons at her as she helped a customer.

Detective John Dorer of Tucson Police said: "It's such a unique getup in the middle of the day, somebody had to have seen them driving around … White faces, foam noses, bow ties, white gloves with red and blue afros, it's quite a get up and it's no laughing matter."

Police are hopeful that someone saw the men, who are believed to be in their late teens, driving or walking around town dressed as clowns. If you have, suppress laughter. Instead, turn in these enemies of quick payday loan stores.

Don't get Tamara Dietrich wrong. The Daily Press scribe hopes police catch the individual that's been robbing payday loan stores in the state.

But that doesn't mean the writer can't find irony in the situation. We paraphrased her recent take on the topici below:

There's rich irony in that this bandit targets fast payday loan lenders, making off with lots of cash with no credit check, no collateral and zero interest.

Is he a former disgruntled loanee skewered by triple-digit interest rates? Was he or a loved one sucked into the black hole of payday loan debt? Or is he just another criminal opportunist, ripping off cash loan stores because that's where they keep the money?

Thank goodness no one's been hurt. And, once again, there's never a good excuse for armed robbery. On the other hand, there's never a good excuse for unarmed robbery, either, even when it's sanctioned by the state. This thug might use a firearm to extract money from his victims, but online payday loan lenders - and their close cousins, car title lenders - don't need one.

They've got loopholes and fine print, savvy lobbyists, campaign contributions to dole out like party favors, a desperate or gullible customer base, and an enabling General Assembly. Thursday, Dietrich received a call from a reader scrambling for a lifeline out of his own "morass" of nine payday loans.

"You can't imagine to what depth I regret ever having gotten hooked up with these places," said the man, named Walter.

He said he owes $4,600 to these payday advance lenders. The monthly interest of $624 comes out of his retirement and Social Security checks. Two credit counseling places told him that they couldn't help.

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Despite it success as an instant payday loan company in The Golden State, Allied Cash Advance has relocated its corporate headquarters from the Bay Area to Miami, citing the high cost of doing business in California, the company said Wednesday.

The business was founded in 1999 with a single location in Northern California.

Today, ACA is one of the nation's largest payday cash loan lenders with more than 250 branches in a dozen states. The move took place in 2005 but the company didn't make an official announcement regarding it until this week.

Indeed, Allied is a long way from its early days when John Lie-Nielsen and Scott Crockett left their corporate finance positions at Montgomery Securities, now part of Bank of America, to launch the payday advance lender.

The creation of Allied grew out of the bankers' careful reading of a payday advance lender's regulatory filing to go public, which was being handled by a rival investment bank. The two bankers, whose friendship goes back to their college years, liked what they saw in terms of the profitability of extending short-term loans to school teachers, mechanics and others who sometimes have trouble making ends meet at the end of the month.

The bankers also got inspired to be entrepreneurs after sitting in countless meetings at Montgomery.

"We saw that the person with the most money in the room wasn't necessarily the smartest, but the one who took action," Lie-Nielsen said.

Can't blame the guy for trying to make a buck.

Let's see … the Pentagon recently cited examples of how military payday loans can be dangerous resources for the armed forces. And now?

The Defense Department is chiming it. It says the number of soldiers denied a security clearance over the past five years has increased 1,600% - because so many are having problems with these high-interest, short-term faxless payday loans. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballasteros says military personnel are being targeted.

"These types of institutions are prevalent around military installations. They tend to seek out young service members who are inexperienced in the world of credit, but have access to a steady flow of cash," he said.

The Senate passed an amendment in June that would establish a 36% interest rate cap for military borrowers; the bill is awaiting approval in conference committee.

The Defense Department said although Oregon tightened its laws on savings account payday loans, the lenders have found loopholes to avoid the new restrictions. This is a problem that still needs to be addressed, Oregon Public Broadcasting recently stated.

When it comes to no fax payday loans in Washington, all it not right in America's northwest. 

The state has filed to close a payday advance lending operation and impose the largest fine ever levied against such a business in Washington. The Department of Financial Institutions has accused Check ‘n Go of wrongly collecting multiple checks from borrowers to secure single small cash advance loans; and of charging excessive fees.

The department also alleges that the provider secured personal identification numbers without the borrowers’ knowledge – by retrieving PIN numbers from phone calls the clients had dialed when calling banks. That's never a nice thing to do.

Check ‘n Go operates at least 16 stores in Washington, including units in Tacoma, Puyallup, Olympia and Federal Way. An employee contacted late Wednesday at the Tacoma store had not yet been informed of the filing, but said, “I want to cry.”

Many quick payday loan victims probably feel the same way.