Although brick-and-mortar payday lending stores have been chased out of Arkansas, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says another threat persists: short-term, high-interest loans offered over the Internet.

McDaniel says his office has sent about 30 warning letters to so-called payday lenders who have loaned or offered to loan money to Arkansas residents over the Internet.

The last payday lending chain in the state closed all its stores on July 31, ending a decade in which the businesses flourished under a loophole created by the Legislature. The state Supreme Court ruled the loophole unconstitutional last year and the state attorney general’s office filed lawsuits to force the businesses to close.

Officials say the state has not ruled out taking the Internet lenders to court, though no lawsuits have been filed yet.

While so-called consumer groups celebrate their “victory,” are they also trying to find ways to provide Arkansas consumers with affordable short-term credit options? Doh! Clearly WalletPop and the “consumer” groups are forgetting something in Arkansas.

Opponents of payday lending celebrated what they say is the end of the high-interest loan business in Arkansas.Opponents gathered in front of a shuttered payday lending store Tuesday in southwest Little Rock to speak with reporters. They said First American Cash Advance, the last payday lender in the state, closed all its stores on July 31.

Community One Federal Credit Union offers a similar program to help members who have borrowed from payday lenders. Community One offers 30-day loans for $300, $500 and $700 with a fee of $15 per $100 loaned and an 18 percent annual interest rate, or about 1.5 percent for the 30-day loan period.

About 2 percent of Community One’s 21,000 members take out a PayDayCHOICE loan occasionally, said Jerrold Rosen, vice president of marketing.

To qualify, a member must have $1,000 in monthly income, must have been employed continuously over the past six months and be 18 or older. The program is available to individuals with direct deposit of checks after 30 days of membership.

To get an AdvancPay loan from Nevada Federal, the borrower must be employed and must not be in default on an existing payday loan. The credit union doesn’t do a credit check.

It’s a 30-day loan with both fees and interest so the Payday Pundit is having trouble doing an apples-to-apples comparison in his head.  Maybe I haven’t had enough caffeine yet.

The law had bounced around the courts for nine years while hundreds of companies accumulated vast profits off the travails of the poor. 

The public payday lending companies, in fact, report very reasonable profits–around 8.5%–very much in line with the profits of Fortune 500 companies.