The check casher or payday lender agrees to hold the check until your
next payday. At that time, depending on the particular plan, the lender
deposits the check, you redeem the check by paying the $115 in cash, or
you roll-over the check by paying a fee to extend the loan for another
two weeks. In this example, the cost of the initial loan is a $15
finance charge and 391 percent APR. If you roll-over the loan three
times, the finance charge would climb to $60 to borrow $100. - Source: FTC Consumer Alert.

391% APR - who would take out a loan at those rates?! The sad part of this story, 391% is on the low end.

When you’re in a bind, you may feel like this would be a great option, but be very careful. There are literally thousands of people who were unaware of the outrageous cost of these loans, and are now in thousands of dollars in debt for a measely couple hundred dollar loan.

This has been such a problem, that Geogia has banned payday loans. However, some people are still going across state lines to get them. CORE, Congress of Racial Equality, is fighting the ban, calling it the financial equal to alcohol prohibition.

CORE Officials have been meeting with state legislators and
minority leaders across the country to promote CORE’s Financial
Literacy Choice and Awareness (FLCA) program. The FLCA campaign
advocates a better understanding of personal finances by
informing the public of the pitfalls and opportunities of
various financial options. - Source: RTO Online article.

What do you think? Should such an obvious poor choice be available? All that Georgia did was put certain standards on APR - should high APRs be illegal?