It used to be that when you wanted a short-term loan, you’d just ask your local bank or credit union. After the economy crisis of 2008, though, the banks were forced to tighten up their procedure for determining risk. What happened was it became a lot harder to get a short-term loan from a bank or credit union. This left a void in the market, since people still needed access to fast cash. Cash advance lenders were more than happy to help, and the number of cash advance storefronts grew exponentially. Business was good, but lenders decided that it could be even better if they expanded to the Internet. Thus, the online cash advance was born, or if it had already been born before this, it began to skyrocket in popularity … and infamy.