"I'm an expat living in the UK.  Back in Chicago, I would see those  
Payday Loan places and I always thought I was way too clever to go to such a place.

Then I moved to the UK without very much money, took a job that I really loved but paid peanuts in one of the world's most expensive  
cities (London), and suddenly Payday Loans looked a lot more appealing.

I remember the day I filled out the app for my first payday loan.  It  must've been about October 2002.  I was so broke and just desperate.    So I was really happy when I left the shop with about £200.  Surely I  could pay that back the next month!

Well you can guess what happened.  Next month I had to go back to the   shop to roll over the loans.  And so began a spiral that lasted for  nearly 4 years.

I didn't tell anyone about my loans because I was embarrassed.  So I  would sneak out on long lunch breaks once a month to the part of town   where I'd taken out the loan. The loan got moved and so I had to take  a bus to a dodgy part of town for a while to make my payment.    My   pay was still abysmal, and of course the amount I had to spend of  that  had shrunk, so my payday loan expanded.  By the end I was up to  a £600 loan, and of course increased overdrafts and increased limits  on my cards.

In the spring and summer of 2006 I decided that enough was enough and  I was going to face up to my spiraling debts.  By this point my payday  loan had evolved so I no longer had to go in and sign over new  cheques.  It was on a direct debit from my bank account.  I was  dealing with a lot of debts at the time so my payday loan was one of  many direct debits that I cancelled.  Then I switched banks.

Looking  back, switching banks was one of the smartest moves I made.  This  meant none of these companies - including said payday loan company -  could help themselves to the money I had.

Needless to say payday loan company was NOT happy when they tried to  get my money out and found that they couldn't!  They didn't have my  mobile but managed to find me at work - they had the number on file  from one of those first payday loans way back when! 

I was so  embarrassed but amazingly after two requests not to phone me at work  followed by a letter that said the same they stopped doing this.

I set up a payment plan for the remainder of the outstanding balance  and had them paid off towards the end of 2006/early 2007.

 And I am SO  GLAD!  NEVER AGAIN!

I sometimes walk past the place where I had my last payday loan and I  THANK GOD I AM DONE WITH THAT. 

 To all you who are struggling with payday loans YOU CAN GET OUT OF THE SPIRAL.  They are unsecured debt,  just like credit cards and other loans and you can get them to  negotiate with you. As long as you are in contact with them and paying  them at least a token fee there really isn't much they can do to you -  regardless of what they say!   Don't give up and best of luck to you."

Thank you so much for sending this in. It gives me and hopefully other people hope and lets them know there IS a way out.

If you have escaped the payday loan trap and would like to share your story to inspire others then please email me and I will include your story here.

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