I Moved Up with a Payday Loan

My neighbors needed distraction from their emotions

I never thought I’d need a payday loan, but I never thought my six-year-old would be playing with a neighbor kid whose parents are cutters, either. They cut themselves and each other for emotional distraction. Or something. I’m not really interested in the reason. I just know they do it and I don’t want my kid anywhere near it.

I needed a payday loan

When the mother of my son’s playmate showed me a fresh, three-inch-long, flayed-open cut across her left shoulder – this newest one wasn’t self-inflicted, she confided, it was a gift from her husband who had been feeling emotional the night before – I had my ducks lined up before she had her sleeve rolled back down. I was moving out. The only duck I was missing was an online payday loan.

I had five days left on my lease

I have good credit, but I refuse to use credit cards. I’m a single parent, but my ex-spouse doesn’t pay child support. My job is my only source of income. Moving is always a financial set-back, and I’ve done it five times — once a year –  since I got divorced. About a year ago, I moved into a duplex because the owners of the house I had been renting before that sold it. I had a one-year lease on the duplex, and the term was up at the end of May. I had five days left on the lease.

I had never trusted the neighborhood, so I hadn’t offered to renew the lease on the duplex. I could continue to rent by paying on a month-to-month basis, or I could leave at the end of the month. I had decided to rent month-to-month until I could afford to move. But after my eye-opener of a chat with the neighbor, I no longer cared about the money.

It takes money to save money

A couple of weeks earlier, I had looked at a rental unit in a four-plex in a much better neighborhood. It’s just around the corner from where I work and a short walk away from my son’s school. I was surprised to find out that the rent was only $500 a month — $250 a month less than what I was paying at the duplex. But I didn’t think I could afford to move.

Moving is expensive; it doesn’t matter whether you’re moving across town or across the country. I could scrape together $1300 of the $1500 I would need for the first and last month’s rent and security deposit. But I was short $200 plus whatever it would cost to rent a moving truck and get set up in a new place. So even though the rent at the four-plex was so much lower, I had decided to wait.

I needed cash today

I hurried my neighbor and her emotional distractions out the door, put my kid in the car, and drove back to the four-plex. I called the number and waited for the owner to come show it to me again. Within an hour, the owner had done his background and credit checks, and I had signed a lease starting on the first day of June. I had also written a $1500 check post-dated by two days.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that 20 minutes later I was online and had an instant payday loan for $500. The funds were in my account the next day. I rented a truck and four days later, I was out.

Now I walk to work and my kid is safe

My duplex landlord wasn’t happy about my departure, and as I had expected, he refused to return my deposits. My $500 cash advance was paid back on my next payday by an automatic deduction from my checking account. So money has been really tight, but I haven’t had to put gas in the car since I moved, I’ve been walking home for lunch, and I’ll be $250 ahead when I pay my rent at the end of this month.

Today I filed an action in small claims court to get my deposits back, but all I really care about is that I got my son away from the cutters. It’s a good thing I didn’t rely on my landlord to refund my deposits. That cash advance was the perfect solution.