Castle Payday was not much of a name in tribal lending two years ago, but as we roll through late 2013 the company is getting a name for themselves. Part of that growing success can bet attributed to the pick-up in advertising by the team that runs Castle Payday. More and more banner ads and various other image ads are popping up all over a number of websites. The company is determined to get more of the tribal lending business, and they have probably increased their advertising campaign due to the recent demise of Western Sky Financial.
When I first looked at Castle Payday a year ago the company seemed like a small and honestly not a very interesting company. This was one of a few companies that had somehow built an arrangement so that when searched their name appeared next to the term "installment loans" but then the verbiage on their site related no information about whether they provided payday loans or installment loans. But then, upon further investigation, the minimum earnings required by an applicant was (and still is) listed at only $700.
That's a very good sign that the product being offered is a tribal payday loan, because an installment loan would be for more money and there would be a need to make more than $700 a month if the firm was granting those larger loans. Most likely what Castle Payday has in mind is for their customers to take out a payday loan and then to roll the loan over, where the effective outcome is to have a de facto installment loan.
The only problem with that is if you get an installment loan you are provided with a much higher dollar amount to use and when you get a payday loan it's basically a pittance to play with until you have to get your extension.
Having said all that, it should be obvious that I'm not really too thrilled with the product that Castle Payday is offering. Also, I have a problem with the lack of information their website provides. After looking all over the site, it doesn't appear that they detail what their interest rates are or how much a customer can borrow. At one point they mention that how much you can borrow is determined by the information that is verified on your application. I've always looked at this type of behavior as disingenuous. The company could easily take some rough examples and post that information online, and just put in a disclaimer that says something like these are just examples, your situation might vary from these results. Any standard blather like that.
The fact is the company just doesn't want to publish their interest rates or how much you can borrow because they probably know they would scare away a good number of potential customers. They are going to just keep 'ghosting' their offering, providing very little detail, and then once they get a qualified application they will call the potential customer and wave some money in the face, trying to get them to sign-up for the loan. Some customers might think it is an acceptable deal and others might just be desperate for any cash, so either way Castle Payday has been getting more customers lately.
The growth of Castle Payday is not going unnoticed. Newspapers, such as the Sacramento Bee, have written stories about the company and how their advertisements are becoming more common. The number of growing customers and all the advertising has awakened some state government regulators as well, who are starting to try to limit or stop the company from issuing tribal loans to those particular states. Just as Western Sky learned, the increase in advertising and getting a more public name is a double edged sword. Yes, it's good to get a bigger brand name and more customers, but it's not good to get the attention of the government who might start trying to make changes in your business.
By the way, one more word about the company ads, they are using the same theme as on their website, where they depict a number of desperate situations. Those desperate situations include a newborn baby who is crying, a woman standing next to a car with a flat tire, a man sitting on a couch in a flooded house with water above his ankles, and a young girl holding the side of her mouth as if she has a toothache. Pretty ingenious ads that millions of Americans can identify with.
A lot of payday lenders make the pitch that they can help customers avoid late penalties on their electric or phone bills, or some other utility bill, or they say that paying the interest on a short-term loan is better than getting insufficient funds charges on their checking account. But Castle Payday has out maneuvered that whole scene and taken their advertising to a new level of human conditions that depict the call for help. Pretty smart on the part of the advertising and website design at Castle Payday.
Back to the state regulators, New York is particularly anxious to stop tribal lenders such as Castle Payday. So far those attempts haven't yielded too much but let's keep watching the news because the pressure forced Western Sky Financial out of the lending business. Will that same pressure get Castle Payday to throw in the towel as well? Most likely not, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Castle Payday not only needs to withstand the push by state regulators but they also need to keep the services of the standard banks available to them because those personal checking accounts is what funds and repays the loans issued by the Native American lenders.
This firm does not have a 100% guaranteed future. But if Castle Payday can fight off all the attacks and keep their banking partners around, then watch for continued (and accelerated) growth at this now popular tribal lending company.
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