Payday loans are aggressively marketed via the Internet and email.  A small industry of Internet payday loan marketing companies has emerged. PDLMarketing LLC claims to have created the online marketing programs for a majority of the top payday loan businesses, taking clients from $100,000 a month in “new loans” to over $3 million in just six months. FastCashConsulting offers turnkey payday loan web sites that permit consumers to apply for a loan via the Internet and use the Automated Clearinghouse Network to deposit or withdraw funds electronically.

The deal includes a domain name, web site hosting, monitoring of site traffic, a site secured by Thawte, a Verisign Company, email, auto responders, help with search engines, Internet classified ads, links to other sites (search engines rate by popularity), meta tags/keywords/descriptions to help search engines find a site.  Fast Cash provides the turn key operation for $500 plus $50 as well as all applications outside the local geographic area of the turn key operator.

Search results

Search is the leading marketing tool for Internet payday lenders.  Internet merchants use sophisticated search engine optimization tools to make sure their web sites show up on the first page in search engine results. Marketers claim that search engine optimization is replacing pay-per-click as the preferred method of driving more consumers to web sites to produce more sales.

Methods that TBBI.net offers include keyword selection by language linguistics research, keyword saturation throughout the site, site design elements and HTML attributes, site navigation elements and site architecture, HTML coding by hand, link popularity integration, submission order and sequence, search engine partnering, web analytics and consumer business profiling, among others. The company claims its search engine optimization is 100% ethical. One Delaware marketer claims that the average payday loan prospect visits a minimum of five to ten web sites before filling out an application.

Sites include multiple links to other payday lenders to augment search results and to earn referral fees. As one site states, “We exchange site links for our business to be successful in being listed in Google or Yahoo and other prominent search engines.” PaydayDirect.com’s page on cash advances and payday loans information has forty-six links to payday loan sites, including links to “military cash advance” and “military payday loan.” Another page on that site has 185 links to payday loan related destinations. Quickcashloans.com includes links to dozens of casinos.

Print Advertising

Internet payday lenders advertise in print media as well as online.  Despite Massachusetts’ small loan law, the Metro shopper paper in Boston ran ads this summer for www.acepays.com which offered “Fast Cash!  $100-$1000, Job & Checking account Required/NO Credit Check.”  The fine print states “This is a cash rebate for joining the www.acepays.com website.  This is not a loan product. Recipient keeps the cash rebate! Early Termination Fee applicable for cancellation or termination.”

Other ads in the Boston paper include “CASH BY PHONE. Get $100 - $500!  Next Day! Call Now! Why Wait! 98% approval rate for all new applicants! Required: Checking Account, Steady Job or Recurring Income, Access to a Fax.” www.cashnet500.com” 800MONEY4U.com also advertises in the Boston newspaper, claiming “No credit? No Problem!”

The Washington Post’s Express paper ran an ad for “FAST CASH! $200 -$750. No Credit? No Problem! Job and DD Req’d. www.yourcashbank.com.” A visit to that web site found loans for up to $500 from a company listed as United Capital in Salt Lake City, UT.

Yellow Pages Ads

The San Diego Yellow Pages includes dozens of listings for store front payday loan outlets.  It also advertises websites offering loans that do not comply with California payday loan limits which provide that the check used to obtain a payday loan cannot exceed $300, including the finance charge. 

Typically the maximum loan in California is $255, yet www.unitedquickcash.com advertises up to $600 Loan by Phone to San Diego consumers. www.getcash911.com offers loans up to $500.  www.cashnet500.com, a web site affiliated with County Bank of Rehoboth Beach, DE, offers loans up to $500. Checkexpress.com loans up to $500 and displays a Better Business Bureau seal on its Yellow Pages ad.

E-Mail

Consumers browsing the Internet and using email are bombarded with offers of quick cash and instant credit from payday lenders. A typical unsolicited commercial email:  “Subject Line:  Cash Advance Today – up to $1,000, no credit check.  NEED CASH FAST? Borrow up to $1,000 until your next payday!!! No Credit Check. Cash in Under 24 Hours! One Hour Approval.”

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon snagged payday loan e-mail in one of the first cases brought to enforce Missouri’s anti-spam law which requires that commercial email be labeled with the phrase “ADV” in the first four characters of the subject line. A suit was filed in October 2003 against Fundetective.com of Boca Raton, Fla. for sending several payday loan spam messages without the advertising label.

Applicants to online payday lenders end up on commercial email lists, under the terms of most “privacy” policies.  A North Carolina consumer got a series of payday loan mail, prefaced by “You are receiving this email because you have completed the Pre-Qualification form or applied for a cash advance from 123onlinecash.com or one of our affiliated cash advance sites.” Payday lending at over 36 percent annual interest is illegal under North Carolina’s small loan law.

Referral Fees/Affiliate Marketing

Affiliates are web sites that link to Internet payday lender sites by buttons or banner ads to feed payday loan applications into the system. To make affiliate marketing work, a web site employs an affiliate tracking system to keep count of leads and the payment due to the affiliate. For example, ShareaSale software tracks each person that visits the Rapid-Advance web site, from a referral web site. 

TBBI.net touts itself as “the undisputed indusry (sic) leader in payday loan web site marketing” and states that its clients pay from $12 to $50 per application for payday loans. Referral fees from the survey varied from one site to the next for either buying or selling leads, ranging from $4 to $50. Cashadvance.com claims to have 1,000 “satisfied affiliates” and to provide real-time tracking of referral fee income.

Some lenders also pay their customers a bounty to refer their friends.  Loan Me Cash pays $15 for every referral who qualifies for a loan. PaydayOK pays a $10 fee to customers who forward email to a friend who then gets a loan.

“Advice” Sites Marketing Loans

Several Internet payday loan sites market loans along with financial management advice and articles about payday lending.  MSpayday.com speaks of “empowerment lending” and provides information for women. Other sites include news articles along with loan applications, even articles that criticize payday lending. Advance Cash Loans gives budget and spending tips with links to applications for United Cash Loans.

These sites include credit counseling contacts, and provide links to debt settlement companies. Another site gives tips on how to save for college and how to save for retirement along with links to payday loans. AdvanceCashLoans.com offers spending and budget tips along with its payday loan offers at 521.4% annual interest. In one case the surveyor entered information into an online payday loan application only to be sent another company’s application for credit repair services with the same information already filled in.