A series of payday lenders have closed retail locations in Ohio after the payday loan industry suffered a defeat at the polls in Ohio. Check Into Cash said it will close 32 of its 92 Ohio stores within the first two weeks of December, cutting 45 workers.

The most recent payday loan chain to announce closures is Check Into Cash (the nation's largest privately held payday lender, with 1,254 stores in 32 states).

The company plans to keep a number of stores in operation, and will lend under the Ohio Small Loan Act. The Ohio Small Loan Act lets lenders charge a $15 origination fee on loans up to $500 and $30 for loans above that amount, in addition to annual interest of 28 percent.

As we have discussed in the past few weeks, Ohio recently enacted some tough laws regulating lenders who issue payday loans in Ohio. It looks like several national banks may step in to take advantage of the regulations.

Most banks are Federally regulated. As such, the new State laws in Ohio regarding payday loans may not apply to them. Since customers in Ohio will still need sources of emergency cash, someone will need to provide short term loans. Most payday lenders will not be able to profitably operate under the restrictive payday loan laws. However, national banks may take advantage of the opportunity.

For example, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and Cincinnati-based Fifth Third are offering Ohio residents cash advances to be covered by their next direct deposit. The fees are similar to those charged by payday lenders — around $10 for every $100 borrowed.

Here's a question that our readers ask all the time:

"Where can I get a loan quick with bad credit?"

The answer, for some people, is to take out a fast and convenient faxless payday loan. Faxless payday loans are designed to help people with bad credit get a loan quickly (many of the lenders we work with can deposit the loan funds into your bank account within one business day). People who have terrible credit (or even no credit) can qualify for a payday loan, since many of the lenders we work with do not check your credit history when they make a decision whether to loan money to you. Instead, some lenders may simply verify that you are employed and that you do not have a history of defaulting on payday loans.

So, if you want to know where to get a loan quickly with bad credit, the answer is …. right here at NextDayCheck.com. As always, please use these loans for emergency cash needs only.

The biggest complaint people have about payday loans is that they are relatively expensive when compared to more traditional forms of credit. Typically, folks refer to the relatively high APRs associated with payday loans and try to compare those APRs(which can be 200% or more) to the APRs associated with credit cards and other forms of credit.

Well, the comparisons may be getting a little weaker as credit card companies start a barrage of tactics to increase their profits. Here is a quick summary of a few things that have happened over the past few weeks:

• Citibank reneged on its promise (made last year) that they would not increase their credit card rates. In fact, they are going to raise the rates of all cardholders from between 2 to 3 % each month. (bringing the cost of using a Citibank credit card to over 20% APR for most consumers).
• American Express, Citibank, and other large credit card issuers, have been sending out letters to cardholders letting them know that their balance limits have been drastically reduced.
• Credit Card issuers are starting to use more "creative" techniques to calculate the interest you owe each month (of course, the calculations always go in their favor). One technique is called "trailing interest" or "residual interest" where cardholders are charged interest based on previous month's transactions if the full balance is not paid off (this boosts the effective APR considerably, as it adds in extra days to the interest calculation).

At least with payday loans, borrowers know exactly what they are getting (assuming the payday lender fully complies with the TILA disclosure requirements).

Recently, a number of States have enacted laws restricting payday loans. For example, Oregon imposed a cap on the amount of fees that a payday lender can charge in Oregon (the cap is $10 per $100 borrowed). Some laws, including those in Oregon, also impose restrictions on the length of the loan. In Oregon, the minimum loan length is 31 days. This effectively reduces the Annual Percentage Rate (or "APR") that payday lenders earn.

Many of these State laws are enacted with the stated intention of helping consumers. But do they really help? Or do they limit borrower's choices, and possibly force borrowers to resort to even more costly alternatives?

A recent study by a Professor at Dartmouth College looks into this question. Here's a summary of the Professor's findings:

The most important finding in the study is that, relative to their Washington counterparts, the Oregon households were far more likely to experience a change for the worse in the key financial outcomes measured by the survey: job status and respondents’ assessments of their recent and future financial situation. These results suggest that restricting access to payday loans harmed Oregon respondents over the term of the study.