Money doesn't actually talk. We do.

Diff’rent Strokes for Desperate Folks

I think I’m the only person in the world who gets PISSED when I see Gary Coleman. But take a look:

It’s a commercial for CashCall loans. And yes, that’s a 99.25% interest rate flashing by your eyes at the end of the clip. Are you seething yet?

CashCall is a loan company that convinces people to sign up for loans by promising a quick delivery of cash, but then dumps all of the important stuff in the fine print. Like, say, the 99.25% interest rate. The result? Someone in dire need of quick cash hastily signs up and ends up drowning in interest payments shortly thereafter.

I know everyone has career highs and lows, but c’mon Gary. When I saw the ad on Vh1, I nearly fell off my treadmill. Why is little Arnold Jackson joining CashCall and preying on the financial flesh of subprime Gen X and Gen Yers? So how much of a ripoff is this?

The personal-finance blog Get Rich Slowly ran the numbers. Let’s say you take out a $2,600 dollar loan at 99% for 42 months. Sure, you would pay off the loan in full, but you’d also fork over an additional $6,743.61 in interest, more than double the size of the original loan. Dat’s whack!

I had no success tracking down Coleman (last word had him living in Utah - anyone seen him there or elsewhere?). As for the CashCall crew, I pestered them for weeks, made an appointment to talk this afternoon yet still had no success reaching anyone.

As a former courtroom dweller, gubernatorial candidate and bankruptee, Coleman should be fighting for the subprime borrower rather than getting paychecks from the sketchy companies who get so many people into financial trouble. Coleman and CashCall ought to either enlarge their fine print or pull the ads - or else forever remain a target on the FiLife dartboard.

– Mary Pilon