Johnny Walker and his wife, Diana, plan their day during a morning discussion at their Santa Fe apartment. Scheduling each day down to the minute has been essential since the family, which includes three grandchildren, lost their Chevy Lumina to a car-title loan company a year ago. New Mexico has no laws governing car-title and payday loan companies and is one of 11 states that does not cap annual interest rates.

Instead, Walker, 48, became one of the tens of thousands of Americans who each year turn to car-title or payday lenders for fast cash with few questions asked.

The companies appeal to people anxious to get money for rent, car repairs, medical emergencies or other desperate situations because they don't do credit checks. After all, people who have good credit don't need their services in the first place.

Efforts to pass laws controlling the industry have been blocked by differences between lawmakers split along free-market and consumer-protection lines -- and by a strong lobbying effort.

Bob Barberousse, a lawyer who represents Select Management Resources, an Alpharetta, Ga., company that is one of the major owners of car-title stores across the country, said car-title and payday stores fill a vital niche.

All anyone needs to get a small, short-term, high-interest loan from these places is an open checking account, proof of employment for payday lenders and title to a vehicle for car-title lenders.

Walker, a Wal-Mart employee who also works occasionally as a musician, put the family car -- the main transportation for himself, his wife, and three grandchildren -- up for collateral on a $250 car-title loan. Then he paid his $1,175 rent.

So far, so good. But the problem is, if you're having trouble coming up with the rent money, you're likely going to have trouble repaying the loan plus interest. Often, people living paycheck to paycheck manage only to pay the interest, and then renew or carry the loan over and pay interest on it again. And again. And again.

"I paid on that thing for a year, and not a dime of it went to the principal," Walker said. "If you do manage to pay something on the principal and you're late the next month, they take money from the principal to pay your late fee and you're back to where you started."

According to 2004 data collected by the New Mexico Financial Industries Division, 148 car title lenders made more than $18 million in loans in New Mexico that year. At the end of 2004, more than 19,000 loans were outstanding.

FID figures collected from 234 state payday lenders in 2004 showed that those companies made more than $80 million in loans. At the end of 2004, the companies had more than 56,000 loans outstanding.

After paying $1,300 on his loan for 12 months, Walker, a veteran drummer who has played with country, rock and blues bands, went on the road with Diana to play an out-of-state gig.

At home, they parked the car outside their apartment and went to bed. About 4:30 in the morning, the loan company confiscated their car and took it to Albuquerque.

That was a year ago, but as Walker sat with his wife recently in the living room of their four-bedroom, two-level apartment, he still appeared stunned and angry.

"I told them, No,'" he said. "And then they called back and said $400, and I said, No.' And then they said $300, and I said, Hell no. You already got $1,300 out of me.'"

According to FID figures, the average car-title loan amount in 2004 was $529 over an average term of 40 days and renewed or rolled over an average of 3.37 times. The average payday loan that year was $283 over an average term of two weeks and renewed an average of 4.46 times.

Paying interest and late fees on either kind of loan for a year can easily cost a consumer more than $1,000 without putting much of a dent in the principal.

Walker has used -- and still uses -- payday lenders, and he has no gripe with them. With payday lenders, the collateral on the loan is not a car but a signed, post-dated check made out to the loan company for the amount owed or electronic debit access to a checking account.

"I pay $36 on a $200 payday loan," he said. "It's far easier to deal with than car-title loans, and I can pay my bills and feed my family. Payday loans have dug me out of some holes."

Winrow, 42, is married and the mother of two sons, 21 and 11. A couple of years ago, she borrowed $600 from an Alamogordo payday lender to help her older son out of some legal problems stemming from a traffic ticket.

Eventually, in an effort to pay off the $1,000 loan, she had six loans from six payday lenders. She was able to come to reasonable terms with most of the lenders, agreeing to pay $25 or $40 every two weeks.

But the original lender got tough with her, using the access she had granted as collateral to withdraw more than $1,200 from her checking account, leaving a balance of $40, and then telling her she still owed $500 in late fees.

"They threatened to garnish my wages, threatened to garnish my husband's wages, said they were going to turn me over to their legal department, threatened to take me to court," she said. "On April 20, they sent me another nastygram' saying they had reported me to people who keep track of credit and that they were considering taking civil action or taking possession of my property."

"I got into this to solve an immediate problem, not thinking what the long-term problems would be," Winrow said. "I just get mad at myself. I'm a college-educated person. What was I thinking?"

Attorney General Patricia Madrid has been hoping some kind of solid legislation controlling the industry would have been passed in the eight years since she took office. But that hasn't happened.

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