Can a payday loan company take you to court?

Answer 1

CANADA Yes.

Based on personal experience, a payday lender in Canada will take you to court, because they have the proof, and generally they already know they will win and get their money. In Canada, they can also recover the small claims court fees that it took to sue you. In some cases, they do not have to exhaust any other remedies if they do not want to. Most payday lenders have such high bad debt that it makes sense to hire someone full time just to sue people. When payday lenders choose to sue you, they are already almost 80% positive they will recover the money due to the amount of information they have on your pay and banking. In Canada, the court will award the lender the ability to garnish your wages, and can also garnish people on disability and pensions. They also have the ability to allot any monies in your bank account towards the debt, and can take all the money in your account to go towards the judgment. That is why they like to know if you have automatic deposit to your account.

United States of America

Yes.

Before a payday lender will take you to court (if they choose to go to court at all), they will generally exhaust all of the other remedies available to them under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Because of the size of payday loans and the relative cost in dollars and people resources to go to court, many payday lenders choose NOT to pursue legal remedies unless they believe that (1) the borrower has the means to make payment and (2) they can clearly establish that the borrower is in the wrong.

Even after a civil judgment has been made against a debtor, in over 50% of cases, that debtor does not pay the debt.