Kinda surprised to see a story run with a customer’s payday advance experience that isn’t criticizing the product. It’s stories like these that policymakers should pay attention to when considering placing restrictions on a well-regulated product that 19 million households use annually.

Alberto Garcia, a restaurant worker from Hayward, said he had never taken out a payday loan but would “if I needed the money.” Garcia was interviewed after leaving a California Check Cashing store on the corner of Kearny and Geary streets. He said he had just purchased a money order and could imagine using a payday loan to get needed cash: “I would consider the bank, but it would be much easier to go here.”

Others may see no place else to turn. Robert Mitchell, who had just completed a Western Union transaction in a Money Mart store on Market Street, said he might take out a payday loan if he faced a deadline to pay rent or a car note, or needed money for a special occasion: “I’m willing to bite the bullet if I have to and pay a little something for that.”