With over 3,000 registered payday loan businesses and an overall population of 25 million people, Texas represents one of the most prolific markets for payday lenders in the industry.

Not only that, but there are many large metropolitan clusters in Texas surrounding the large cities Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.  There’s a saying in Texas that when the weather is hot, there’s nothing else to do but shop and eat. A typical street corner in Dallas has at least two banks and two fast food restaurants, so consumers are invited to get money and spend money just about every waking moment. Texas highways and byways are set up to prime the capitalistic consumer engine and breed success in the retail business. Intercity freeways are gigantic advertising corridors for anyone who wants to hang out their shingle, making this market a hotbed for business owners.

One such business that has been the beneficiary of that formula is the payday loan industry.  What formerly was a little known product based in check cashing stores or pawn shops, has grown into a professional, regulated, and mainstream industry.  In 2010, it was at $40 billion.

With all the instability in traditional cornerstone investments like the stock market and real estate, many investors have taken a look at the payday loan industry as an option.  The industry is tuned to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the cash strapped, credit challenged consumer.  Payday loan businesses were built by adapting to many of the problems that Wall Street cannot.

Are you looking for something new?  Are you growing weary of the daily picture that CNN shows you of the beleaguered NYSE trader looking down at his desk after yet another hard plummet of the market?

Consider becoming a lender in the Texas payday loan business.  Reach out to C.A.B. Consulting and Brokerage if you would like to look into it.  We would be happy to tell you what we know and connect you with businesses looking for people such as yourself with money to invest.

Contact C.A.B. Consulting and Brokerage at cabconbrokerage@gmail.com or call us at 214.293.8676.

This week an interesting article came out in Fox Business (written in Motley Fool) titled “4 reasons hourly workers reject jobs – and what to do about them.”   Many of small business owners in Texas could be seeing a rise in the so-called millennial generation phenomenon of “ghosting.” According to the Urban Dictionary “Ghosting” means the shutdown/ceasing of communication with someone without notice.  Check it out:  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ghosting  

In the cases where Ghosting occurs, it starts with a “no show” of usually a newer hire within the first week or two of employment.  The ghosting employee does not call, text, or email that they have quit the job.  Also they either turn off their phone or block your phone number and send you straight to voicemail when you try and call.  It is truly a strange and often occurring phenomenon…gone are the days when someone has the personal honor to at least let someone know that you have abandoned a job so they can make arrangements to run their business.  C’mon kids!  

In these boom times in the Texas job market it is likely that the new hire knows they can walk into just about any local service business of their choosing and get a new job that day.  The article shares four approaches that could help our payday loan, title loan, and cash advance business owners in Texas to address the problem, very glad to share!  

“1. Location

But the last thing you want to do is spin your wheels in an effort to attract and keep hourly workers, so if you’ve been struggling to hire or keep your team members, keep the above points in mind. In many cases, being a bit more generous, creative, and flexible could help you grow your staff and get your business the support it needs to thrive.”

Here is a link to The Motley Fool / Fox Business article cited above: https://www.foxbusiness.com/small-business/4-reasons-hourly-workers-reject-jobs-and-what-to-do-about-them

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

Frequently the topic of pursuing or threatening criminal charges against a customer who has defaulted on a loan via a Non-Sufficient Funds check or ACH debit comes up as I work with CAB Consulting clients. My understanding has always been that unless the customer is guilty of outright fraud that you cannot pursue criminal charges, go to Sherrif’s hot check division, etc. “Outright fraud” would be an umbrella term for forgery, fraud, theft, or other criminal conduct.

On October 14th, the OCCC released an Advisory Bulletin on this subject that makes some important clarifications. OCCC noted that there must be specific evidence of criminal conduct, intent to commit a criminal act, the consumer must have knowingly or intentionally violated criminal law, and that these criteria would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Pursuing consumers who did not exhibit any of these behaviors would be a violation of Texas Finance Code and the Texas debt Collection Act.

NSF checks and NSF ACH debit returns simply are not something we can pursue criminal charges on. If the OCCC feels this issue is worthy of an Advisory Bulletin then I am confident that research of this activity will be added to the examination checklist.

See below for a link to the Advisory Bulletin. As always, feel free to call or email Michael Brown at CAB Consulting. 214-293-8676 or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

OCCC.CAB.Criminal.Charges.Bulletin

There is some funny money making the rounds in Abilene and the East Texas region.  There were two incidents recently that were uncovered.  The way money usually works is that it will circulate in a region so I want to make sure everyone is upping the amount of attention put towards identifying counterfeit bills.

Incident #1: Fake ‘movie’ money used at movie theater and other Abilene businesses (KTXS News).

Abilene police are investigating a case they hope will have a Hollywood ending.  APD’s Fraud Unit says suspects have made purchases at more than 20 local businesses using counterfeit bills made specifically for use in the movies. Ironically, one of the places that accepted the funny money was a movie theater.

Link: http://www.ktxs.com/news/fake-money-used-as-movie-prop-circulating-in-abilene/167827285

Incident #2:  Movie money found in East Texas.  (Longview Journal)

There have been additional news articles on the use of the counterfeit “movie” money in East Texas as well.  The Longview Journal posted an article that the “movie” money has been reported in other parts of East Texas such as: Lufkin, Diboll, and Jasper.

Link: https://www.news-journal.com/news/2016/aug/29/fake-movie-money-hits-et/

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.

The O.C.C.C. is getting very close to releasing the Credit Access Business License application. It could be another 7 to 10 days, if so that may be Friday, October 21, 2011.

The next O.C.C.C. Finance Committee meeting also happens to be on Friday, October, 21st 2011. In the meeting the “Consumer Disclosure Form for Credit Access Businesses” will be presented along with its accompanying rules. I was recently updated and given a sample document which illustrates some of the disclosures that will be required for a single payment payday loan. There will also be other versions and sample documents released for multiple payment payday loans, single payment auto title loans, and multiple payment auto title loans.

See below for a link to the document – take a look and tell me what you think. Again, this is only one sample and it is not for use in operations. Do you have any comments you wish to make about the disclosure form? Do you feel like this is too much information? Can you easily work this into your process? after you post your comments I will relay them to the Finance Committee.

OCCC.Sample.Disclosure.Form

Submit comments to me via email at cabconbrokerage@gmail.com

Check your work!  Last week my team and I released a blog about Carlos Uresti, a San Antonio based Senator whose offices had been raided by the FBI.  We happened to know that a politician by the name of Uresti in the San Antonio area had also written a bill that would attempt to “cap” all finance charges on Credit Access Business payday, installment, and auto title loans to 25% of the amount borrowed.  Being that I am a rabid defender of our CAB clients, I sprang on the name “Uresti” immediately and assumed he was the same man who had written the bill – which was House Bill 1733.

We made two mistakes on the blog post.  First, State Rep. Tomas Uresti wrote House Bill (“HB”) 1733 and Carlos Uresti did not.  Second, we should have known that a Senator would not write a “House Bill” because they are not in the “House,” they are in the Senate!    This was one day that our team totally messed up on the details – the blame is on me.

These errors were sharply pointed out to me and we pulled down the post right away.  We have a lot of people reading our posts and people count on us to relay information.  It is important to make sure we get them right. This oversight is a fresh reminder that the good old fashioned saying “the devil is in the details” is alive and well.

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.