Is a Payday Loan confidential?
Having to take a payday loan is an embarrassing experience for most people. They have a bad reputation and for good reason. Most payday loan companies promise that they will keep your loan confidential. The question is whether or not they actually will. There are no guarantees that your loan will be kept secret. So is a payday loan confidential or are people going to find out that you took one out?
The answer to whether or not your payday loan is confidential is it depends. Most lenders will tell you that it is confidential and then turn around and tell you that they need to contact your employer in order to verify that you have a job and how much you make. They say that they do this discreetly but it is hard to see how they would get this information without telling your employer why they need it. Even if they don’t’ specifically tell them it is for a payday loan any reasonably intelligent person will have a good idea of why they are asking for it.
There is also a good chance that they also want to verify some of the other information that you provide them with as well. They may call your landlord to find out how long you have lived there and in some cases they may even ask for references that they can contact. Again they may try to be discreet when they make these calls but it won’t be all that hard for the people they call to figure out why they are getting the call. Bottom line, if they want to contact your employer, landlord or other references you should probably assume that your payday loan is in fact not confidential.
To be fair there are some payday loan companies who don’t contact your employer or landlord and they will take your pay stub as sufficient evidence of your job and income. This is almost always limited to the payday loan companies that you have to visit in person. If you are looking for a payday loan online they are almost certainly going to call to verify the information that you give them. This is something that you need to be aware of.
Of course you are going to see lots of websites that promise confidential payday loans. In most cases what they mean is that they use a secure web form to collect your information. It should go without saying that you shouldn’t ever provide personal information like that required to get a payday loan unless you are on a secure site. As for the actual confidentiality they may think they can call your boss and discreetly find the information that they need but you probably shouldn’t count on it. It is best to assume that if you take a payday loan it won’t actually remain confidential.