Suze Ormon is not going to tell you to do this. But the “save don’t spend” guru, as absolutely right on as she is in virtually all her advice, does not typically talk about the finer details of finessing oneself through tough times and emergency financial conditions.

She would not say you should take out a bad credit loan , which is often called a payday loan , in order to manage your finances. She would say “cut back, don’t buy, take a second job.” All well and good – but particularly if you are doing all of those things and you still get hit with an expense that wasn’t planned (medical, car repair, etc.), you need a stopgap method to keep paying your bills on time.

Paying bills on time is a Suze Ormon mantra. So she has to agree with us on this particular point.

The scenario where it makes sense to get a bad credit loan could be this:

1. Credit card payment is due on the 22nd of the month.
2. But you had an emergency medical cost on the 17th of the month – consuming the full $650 you planned to use to pay down your credit card (you might even have lower minimum payments due, say $400, but you were trying to be Ormon-worthy responsible by paying more than the minimum).
3. Your only other alternative is a loan shark, someone who would charge you 40% interest (and break your knuckles if you didn’t deliver).
4. So you get a bad credit loan ( online loans are recommended for their time efficiency and your ability to review terms from your computer, not standing in line at a payday loans store).
5. You pay your credit card bill on time – avoiding late fees, a potential interest rate hike and perhaps a negative mark on your credit card.

The fact is we adore Suze Ormon. She has helped millions of people. But so too do online loans. These so-called bad credit loans are for individuals who recognize the need to work away their debts – but occasionally run into circumstances that make paying bills on time more challenging than it should be. It’s a quick trick that can make a big long-term difference.