bry623

I am the Tech Support Manager for Checksmart, a company which does payday loans. Basically, you come in with a check for $115, we give you $100. Two weeks later we deposit it.

Because of Truth in Lending Laws, if this fee were calculated as an APR it would work out to be 391%.

Last month, the Ohio House passed a law which caps the APR at 28%. This would make it impossible for our company to do business under the current model. The Senate votes on it today and the governor has promised he will sign it.

On a personal level, this sucks......... who wants to get laid off?? But as the manage of the political scene, I have to look at it politically. I agree that the industry needs a little overhauling, but not this drastic. I am against any measure that kills business and industry. I am also against the government interfering in every day lives.

Regardless of how you feel about this issue or how you feel about me or my political views, I very well could lose my job. As the sole provider of income for my family, this is a foreboding prospect.

simpswr

That would have to be scary . . wish you the best with the job search. How does the job market look there? . .

mommabear

I'm sorry to hear that you could lose you job. (Hubby and I are in Indiana.) We are on SS and work part time to supplement it. We both got laid off from our part time jobs last Dec. He just found another job a month ago; I found another one in late Feb. We used to joke about "working for food" until it became reality.

If you are eligible for unemployment, file immediately because there's probably a waiting period before it kicks in. We couldn't get it (in our State) because we couldn't actively seek full time work because of the restrictions to how much we can earn while taking SS. (Yet we paid into it with our part time jobs. Go figure.)

Do not be too proud to ask for help. If you have kids and you can get food stamps and the like while you look for work, do it! That's what it's there for. (Although we couldn't get it because we still made a bit too much with SS and have no kids at home anymore.)

We did however finally become poor enough to qualify for medical insurance through a state program. Co-pays are next to nothing and will help us now until we are old enough for Medicare in a year or two. We haven't had insurance through employers for 25+ years and because of pre-existing health problems for the hubby, private insurance is completely out of reach. Before we "retired" we always made just a little too much to qualify for any other programs, with it just being the two of us. So look into what your state can do to help with medical insurance for the family.

I hope that you will be able to keep your job. It's tough out there right now. But you never know. If you do get laid off, down the road you might discover it forced you on a new track that turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to you....in the long run. (I'm one of those "the glass is half-full" people.)

Good luck and stay strong!

yustr

Must be something to do with managing this forum...

As you told me back then; hang in, keep your options open and your chin up and trust that those who love you do so because of who you are not because of what you do.

Here's one to try:

Link

johnhook

bry623,

Losing a job is not unlike losing a loved one - especially if you've been at this job for several years. I know cause I've been there in BOTH cases.

The fact that you're handling tech support for this company tells me that you have technical skills - skills that should be transferrable to some other business environment. What kind of technology (hardware, software, etc) did you support? There are likely other enviroments where your skills would apply.

I would get together a resume and start looking elsewhere. Small businesses tend to be a better bet these days as large companies are outsourcing their tech support to India, the Phillipines and elsewhere.

Have you always done technical support work or were you in some other field prior to this job? Did you LIKE your job? Was it something you enjoyed or was it just a day-to-day paycheck situation? I ask because too many of us "settle" in a career that we really don't like.

I'm thinking the banking/lending industry is probably not very desireable with the economy in the state it's in right now. If your technical skills are not too specific, you should be able to find work elsewhere.

Best of luck,

- John

bry623

Thanks guys.

Not too much to report, other than things look bleak. They have promised us that there will be minimal cutbacks but who knows?

Thanks for the link. I am going to apply for that one. It would be a little closer to home (I actually grew up a mile from the base) and I'd get president's day off!

EnglishPaul

Bry623, I hope you find some stability in your work, either at the present job or in a new one.

As an aside, I am curious as to how you view Checksmart's business. I can't help but think that it is preying on the poor, but I have probably misunderstood how it works.

All the best.
Paul

bry623

Personally I do not think it preys upon the poor. If a person gets one loan and budgets in the repayment, then they are fine. It is when they go from store to store where there is a problem. Many states maintain databases where citizens can only get one loan. Alas my fellow republicans in the Ohio Senate (33-11 majority) are all spineless.

simpswr

There were times in my past where I would pay $5 to get $100 two weeks early. . I was not poor, but there were times when the outgo did not match thie income.

Yes the APR sounds attrocious, but it's still just $5

yustr

They used to call it loan sharking but that was before Reagan deregulated organized crime.

johnhook

To Everyone Here:

I too have very strong opinions about payday lenders and banks in general these days. I started to write a long "Op-Ed" with my strong opinions on the topic - but it dawned on me that bry623 is looking for career advice, not some political debate about the ethics or legitimacy of his employer.

This guy needs help finding a new job - not a lecture about the company he's working for or a debate about his political views.

In the spirit of user-to-user support - I think it would be more productive to HELP this guy rather than trash his soon-to-be EX employer. If he's got technical skills - suggest job search tactics, resume advice, companies you'd suggest working for, etc.

Respectfully,

John

mimo2005

Good luck bry623 , i hope you do ok with your company and/or getting succesfully a new job ASAP.
I understand after the subprime mess , a lot of states have tweaked some rules/Laws or in process to do it.
Good luck again from the bottom of my heart.

EnglishPaul

I did think long and hard before opening up the work type as a sub-thread. I didn't want to be insensitive, but I was fascinated by the nature of the company. I didn't see too much conflict of interest between some people posting constructive job search advise and some people discussing this end of the loan market.
I wish everybody well that is facing the prospect of loosing a job, or in the midst of unemployment having lost one. Sadly I think this will be a growing list for the next few years. At least Bry has skills that are portable from his present job; some do not.

It is a sobering thought that for every industry that groups lobby to abolish, there are good people within that suffer the consequences.
Like the industry or not, Bry has my best wishes; and I would have thought the wishes of all on the board.

bry623

If anyone wants to debate this in another thread feel free to start one.

Chode

Job hunting stinks, but the best time to do it is while you have the old one. My experience after 15 years of mid-level corporate management in a Fortune 500 company can be summed up by saying, "Take care of yourself, because your company won't." You may be loyal to your company, but your company won't be loyal to you. Longevity = high pay scales = lots of vacation time = liability. Go for it, and good luck!

johnhook

bry623,

I completely concur with what Chode just wrote. There is no security in corporate America these days. It used to be that loyalty and longevity with the same company bought you better pay and job security - but not anymore. With all of the downsizing, consolidations, buyouts, mergers and outsourcing - the only people who make it big in large companies are the CEOs and other executives. I say this as someone who worked for 13+ years for the same consulting firm - only to get outsourced and let go.

I believe that small business or self-employment are the safest bet that this point.

- John