Loans and Cash

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess – A few local institutions do offer alternatives to payday loans at a significantly lower cost.

Central Illinois Credit Union, which has locations in Champaign and Urbana, has been offering a “payday alternative loan” to its members since 2005, when its president, Cheryl Merkel, saw a group of UI law students present a report they had written about similar products at other credit unions across the country.

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess â€“ Connie Harrison doesn’t live like a spendthrift.

The 58-year-old University of Illinois graduate shares her modest, two-bedroom house in rural Fithian with several cats, mostly strays she’s taken in over the years. She has more than 200,000 miles on her 1996 Geo Metro.