We figured it wouldn’t take long for your local library to ban payday loan websites. The legalities of the payday loan industry have been debated in courts for years, but morality is something that individuals and organizations deal with daily.
Many of the legal money lending payday companies are finding themselves the target of increased public disapproval with their methods of lending and collecting money. The latest in a string of these public incidents is the library banning of payday loan websites in Nottingham. In doing so, the library has shown other people and organizations that it is okay to stand up to payday lenders for moral reasons.
Payday Lending and Web Bans
One has to consider that most people who are getting the online payday loans are using the internet from the library to do so. For those who have money to pay for internet access, getting a payday loan is not often required to tide themselves over.
This is one of the reasons why the industry is going to be hit so hard by libraries closing their doors to the industry.
While it is an isolated incident, the continuous ban of payday loan websites in libraries can cause some serious problems for many of the payday loan companies.
They are always on the receiving end of the regulation from the law, but only recently have citizens and organizations taken up against them with their own moral means as well.
In total, more than 190 different payday loan companies have been blocked from all of the city libraries. That offers users no opportunity to get a payday loan from the library, but instead need to find some other type of internet access in order to do so.
Implications for Payday Loan Lenders
The implications that this has for payday loan lenders is manifold. First of all, it will be very difficult to continue with the same growth and momentum now that the largest consumer base cannot actually access the online lending platform.
That hits some companies, especially hard who have no brick-and-mortar presence.
Additionally, it shows that the public (even if in the United Kingdom) is staunchly opposed to the practices employed by payday lenders. This has larger long-term repercussions as it could mean the end of the industry or at least the decline of profitability.
There are many reasons for people to be concerned with the payday loan industry, but the library ban has made it a moot point for those in any area. More than likely, this will cause a legal stir as well. By picking and choosing the types of websites the library allows, there has always been a moral fine line.
It is much harder to see the line between the payday loan companies and the library’s moral qualms. When payday lenders employ their law teams to fight such a ban, it will be interesting to see what happens.
