Just Business- or preying on the weak?

Or if a person gets into a bind and has car problems, he has to get it fixed or he can't get to work. "They could use a bus," Silverman says. "But many people do not live on the bus line, and that is only for an emergency anyway. We can help them into a more permanent solution."

To critics who say payday lenders make fabulous profits off of others' misery, Silverman says that like any business, some years yield a good profit and others may not be as good.

"We have consumers who complain," he says. "But in any industry -- groceries, shoes, insurance -- you have that. We will always have consumers we cannot satisfy. But the majority, 99 percent, are satisfied -- more so than at the corner grocery. Whenever someone is not satisfied, we find out what the problem is and we try to rectify it. We really bend over backwards. Let's say the customer didn't know what they were doing when they got the loan. They give us back the money, and we give them back the service charge and call the deal null and void."

If a customer cannot pay, Silverman says, two things can happen. "The customer can call and say they just can't pay, that they have no money or lost their job. Then we work with them, sometimes we really work with them. If the check bounces, we work with them. We try to collect as much as possible. But are you going to take someone to court for $115? It's not worth the time. There is always a risk.

"But we are no different than any other merchant. We turn checks over to the prosecutor, but that is down the road for the borrower. Occasionally, we get people who file bankruptcy, and there is nothing we can do about that."

Staying out

of trouble The threat of having her car taken away and her wages garnisheed led Lisa to seek bankruptcy protection. The loss of her job and the weight of the car-title loan were financial problems too deep for her to deal with, she says.

"The car-title loan helped me get to bankruptcy," she says. "I messed up, and it kind of messed me up. The money I spent on financing that loan was money I could have put toward something else. I am now out more money than the car is worth. But I am working full time, and things are a lot better. I am still paying the loan off, my lawyer got an agreement to pay just the principal and get it over with."

In September, Behrens made up his mind to stop running himself ragged and take whatever came next -- prosecution, debt collection, an irretrievable credit record. His wife had left, and he was tired and alone. He knew only that he did not want to lose his house. It was the desire for his own home that got Behrens into the maddening situation in the first place. He called his bank, a small, community institution, to see what he could do about the hundreds of dollars in overdraft charges. The charges had piled up after he talked to his short-term lenders and tried to work out payment plans.

The bank official he talked to scheduled a face-to-face meeting with Behrens, during which Behrens was offered the deal that would turn everything around for him. The bank official suggested Behrens work out his financial difficulties with Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS). In exchange, the bank would close his checking account and forgive the charges.

"I was in a small town," Behrens says. "I can't imagine what would have happened if I was Kansas City and had to go to talk to a banker who sees this all the time. I tell you, I was so relieved. I could see a beginning."

Behrens originally knew nothing of CCCS. The nonprofit organization's office is tucked into a third floor corner of the American Red Cross building at 211 W. Armour Blvd. The office's atmosphere is reminiscent of an AA hall -- a place that makes it clear that "We don't care what you did to get here, but we're glad you made it."

"We try to help people back to self-sufficiency," says CCCS Director of Community Development Jeff Sheets. "We do as much teaching and education for that purpose as we can."

Sheets sits behind a neatly ordered desk he claims is not always so prim. He was a financial adviser for a second-tier lender, Norwest Financial, before he came to CCCS 10 years ago at the age of 30. "I just couldn't do that anymore," he says. "I was seeing too many people get into trouble with high-interest loans and saw that some people were there and in trouble because they either had no money or couldn't manage the money they had."

He spends much of his day building relationships with creditors and business and financial institutions CCCS needs to help their clients, but Sheets still counsels people in trouble. They are people who do not want to file bankruptcy but find themselves in untenable financial difficulties. Behrens, he says, is a good example of a well-intentioned person who is learning from his mistakes and is trying to set things straight without resorting to bankruptcy.