Identification is limited to a California driver's license or a California identification card. No person shall make a loan to a borrower primarily for personal, family or household purposes without first obtaining a consumer finance lender's license with the Commissioner of Corporations. The question of whether or not this transaction is a loan is an undecided one in California. This bill, if enacted, would give tacit statutory sanction to the position that the above-described transaction is in fact not a loan to be governed by the Consumer Finance Lenders Law by specifically authorizing this practice under the laws governing check cashers. This practice of cashing post-dated checks has been specifically prohibited in other states, including New Jersey and Delaware.
Many individuals face an occasional emergency for small amounts of money for a short term.
These individuals have no other resources such as credit cards, close family or other financial assets to draw from. This service is already being provided in at least half the states across the United States, driven by the market demand and the consumer's need for this service. This bill gives customers access to short-term loans while at the same time providing greater consumer protection than now exists.