Your property tax bill is due and it was higher than you expected. You live on a low or fixed income, or you are living off Social Security Disability benefits. You need help. You are thinking about going to one of those payday loan places you’ve driven by -- just this once. Should you? Will a payday loan really help you; or can a payday loan hurt you?

Payday loans are always advertised as easy to get and fast, too . . . for a fee. Basically, if you have a job and you receive a paycheck, you qualify for a payday loan.

Payday loan advertisers entice you with fee reductions that are advertised as being slashed as much as 50%. They tell you they won’t do a credit history check. This is appealing to people with bad credit history that can’t get a standard loan from a bank or other lending institution.

You don’t even have to go into a payday loan office to apply for a payday loan. You can apply online. You don’t have to go to the payday loan office to pick up your money. You can have the money sent to you by Money Gram, or you can have it deposited directly into your bank account.

What happens if, at the end of your two-week payday loan payment period, you can’t pay the full amount of your payday loan when it is due? Some payday loan places advertise easy extensions of credit for an additional two weeks . . . for an additional fee.

You can even make scheduled payments on your small payday loan, but at a high rate of interest. This can make it nearly impossible to pay off the payday loan if you are making minimum payments. Believe it or not, payday loan companies in some states have actually charged as high as 1800 percent interest on small loans. At that rate, you would be better off to pay your property taxes a little bit late and pay the overdue fee that they attach to your tax bill.

Though the quick and easy small payday loan may help you by getting you out of a bind, the fees and interest rates can certainly hurt you. Those regular minimum payments on a payday loan are not going toward the principal. You are paying on the interest and making a lot of money for the payday loan institution.

You can get caught up in a cycle of needing more payday loans that never ends; and, if you are on a low or fixed income, you’ll end up needing more extensions on those payday loans that you can’t pay off. You could eventually find yourself in bankruptcy court or you could end up losing your home in foreclosure, or your car may be repossessed, or that giant-screen television may have to go back to where you bought it.

The stress on you and your family due to the financial burdens created by a payday loan are not worth it for the quick fix solution to what seems like an emergency situation. Find another way to solve the problem.

Cut corners even tighter than you already have. Have a garage sale. Work overtime or find an extra temporary part time job. Learn about better management of your finances and try to put a little nest egg away for those unexpected bumps in the road. Steer clear of payday loan institutions.