If I remember correctly we, those of us in the navy, are actually not even allowed to go to one of those pay day lone places.
You're actually still allowed to go there, it's just that they can't legally issue you a loan with an effective apr above 36%, including all issue fees and such. The payday places have mostly decided that 36% isn't enough for them to make money, and now decline to do business with military.
Other things affected are those tax refund advance loans - many of them were effectively above 100% because they only get you your money back a week or so early, and charge a couple percent.
The problem with those huge interest rates is the fear that somebody can get into trouble, borrow a bit of money, then quickly find themselves in a hole
worse than getting money from the old loansharks would have been.
Saw an article where a NCO was going around to a bunch of different places and getting loans to pay off PD1 with money from PD2. He burned through like $10k over the course of a year - for an initial loan of only $1k.
500% interest is LOW compared to what some PD places were charging.
Of course, my concern is that payday loans, much as I wouldn't touch one with a hundred foot pole, DO have a legitimate place in business, it CAN help those who get them. It's just that they're very, very dangerous and those that can use them responsably are also the types who can get better terms.