"They see it as easy — in five minutes, just sign here, get the $100 you need," Hilton said. "They don't understand it's a high interest that next week. They owe it 100 percent and owe it in full in one week."

However, payday lenders argue their fees are not any more punishing than those of banks and credit unions.

"We are actually enhancing the welfare of our customers, who might be facing more onerous costs associated with things like bounced-check fees and late bill payment fees," said Tom Linafelt, director of communications for QC Financial Services, which has a store at 1145 N. State in Orem. "The reason banks don't make small-dollar, short-term loans is they're making billions of dollars on bounced-check fees."

And while critics agree there are times when payday lenders fill a great need, such as quick cash to repair a broken car so the owner can get to work, it's the lack of education that is most worrisome.

"When people are in a crisis, they aren't always considering the long-term effects of what they're doing," Hilton said. "Desperate people make desperate decisions."

Yet for many customers, visiting a check-cashing or payday lender isn't a desperate decision — it's a matter of convenience.

Orem resident Daniel Looman said it's easier for him to pop into Instant Check Cash at 1207 N. State every few weeks and pay a small fee of $1 or so to get his work checks cashed. Kimberly Lunt uses the same store to pay her home-heating bill, where she can pay in cash. She's never actually gotten a loan, however.

It's these positive experiences on which payday lenders focus. And they say that an ordinance like Orem's will hurt customers' chances to shop around for the best services.

"We feel that the cash-advance industry has proven itself time and time again as the option of choice for many Utahns," said Cort Walker, spokesman for the Utah Consumer Lending Association.

He said the majority of cash-advance industry customers are women in their 30s, who have completed high school and often several years of college with an average income of $42,000 — "pretty much middle America," he said.

"There are stereotypes out there, that this is a product for low-income people, and that's just not true," Walker said.

Another misnomer is that lenders won't work with customers, which also is not true, Linafelt said.

"So often, we are, as an industry, criticized for this cycle of debt, when the reality is, any customer can have more time to pay this off," he said. "We work with customers to reach acceptable payment plans."

Payday lenders also comment on the irrelevance of APR because their focus is short-term loans.