SOCIETY/CULTURE: Loan Rangers

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By Leslie Harpold
ou're low on cash, it's a few weeks till your ship comes in, and you need some dough now. If your friends aren't willing to cough up the money, you need to ask yourself, how much is it worth to me?

If it's worth five percent interest a week, you might want to talk to someone like John or Bobby. Their profession, having no proper name, is sometimes called the neighborhood's local loan institution. More commonly, John and Bobby are called loan sharks — "Louies," in the vernacular.

The question is, how badly do you need the money?

Bobby is a small-timer, not a specialist, who has his office at a local Manhattan bar and deals predominantly with college students and slackers between trust fund payments. "You learn quick who's gonna pay and who isn't by staying in one place," Bobby explains. "You watch, you see what their habits are, if they use drugs, if they're just strapped occasionally or if this is a continuous thing with them." Some perpetual borrowers are his best customers, though, and he's learned when to say when. Decisions depend heavily on instinct — if he feels like someone's on his last chance, he won't lend. "It gets ugly when they start begging, but I'm thinking to myself, I'm so glad I said no." The key is telling need from desperation.

"Look, I don't give a shit what anyone calls me as long as I get my money," says John, 36, a loan shark since he was 19. Seventeen years in the business has taught him that, "If you're giving something away, no matter what it is — money, cardboard boxes, food — someone will always take it."

Five percent a week interest — "juice" — to the professionals, is hardly giving it away. If your loan runs 20 weeks or more, the amount you pay back is double the amount borrowed. It works like this:

1. Find a louie.

2. State your case.

3. The loan shark will either approve, deny or request 24 hours for review. He will likely have you repeat or elaborate on your story several times. Rest assured, it is not because he isn't listening. He wants to see if your story changes or has any holes. There's no credit bureau for this kind of thing, so the loan shark learns to trust his instincts. If you're an unknown quantity he uses the 24 hours to check you — and your story — out.

4. If your loan is approved, discuss terms of repayment and make the initial money transfer.

5. Begin repayment.

Sounds easy? Well, yes and no. If your story doesn't wash — say you owe a bookie, or you're trying to make a bet or pay another loan shark — then the heat's immediately on. You're thinking that five percent's a lot of interest. Again, the question is, how badly do you need the money?

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