For people who live paycheck to paycheck, and every cent is already spent, they're living on the edge.
The people who can least afford it sign up for these loans. Adjust your withholding, talk to your landlord or borrow from your mother--almost anything is better than one of these loans.
The amazing thing about the popularity of these loans is that people are paying triple-digit interest to get their refunds back only a few days earlier.
Nobody plans to dig themselves into a financial hole, but going into Christmas 2005 many people were still paying for Christmas 2004.