By Kim Chandler | The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY (AP) — A new state database that tracks payday lending shows that people took out 462,209 payday loans — totaling $146 million— from payday loan stores in Alabama in the past 10 weeks.

The Alabama Banking Department began tracking the loans in August after winning a court fight over the creation of the database to enforce an existing law that limits people to having no more than $500 in payday loans at one time. The numbers provided a neutral glimpse of how much Alabamians borrow from payday lenders in the state.

“Anyone, who looks at these numbers, I challenge them not to have their eyes opened because it is shocking,” Shay Farley, legal director for Alabama Appleseed, which has lobbied for more regulations for payday lenders.

Critics of payday lending said the state needs to take additional action to protect borrowers from they call a debt trap, while an industry representative said the database numbers show an industry already in decline from increased state regulation. With payday loans, people pay a flat fee of up to $17.50 per $100 to borrow money for a period of 10 to 14 days. Critics argue the loans become a debt trap when people borrow more money when they can’t pay off the first loan

Farley said Alabama is “above the curve” in payday loan usage.

South Carolina, which has a similar population size and loan limits, had about one million payday loans in all of 2013. The state of Washington had 871,801 loans in 2013, Farley said.

“In other states that have moved for reforms, there has been no rioting in the streets to bring back payday loans,” Farley said.

However, an industry representative said the numbers show that people need the service and that the industry is taking a hit from regulation.

Max Wood, owner of Cash Spot stores in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, said industry figures indicate about 300,000 people use payday loans in Alabama.

“There is no other choice for those 300,000 people for all practical purposes,” Wood said.

Wood disputed that Alabama was out of line with usage and said the database numbers aren’t surprising. He said the industry predicted there would be four million transactions in Alabama every year and it doesn’t appear the state will get anywhere near that number.

Wood believes lenders are closing shop as people turn to unregulated online lenders because they need to borrow more than $500

“The number of transactions has already dropped dramatically. The number of stores has dropped dramatically,” Wood said. There are 890 licensed payday lenders in Alabama, down from 1,100 a year ago, he said.

He said states that have database have seen the industry shrink by 50 percent or more.

President Barack Obama put an unfavorable spotlight on the Alabama payday lenders earlier this year when he traveled to Birmingham to praise Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s effort to put new restrictions on payday lending practices.

Payday lenders filed a lawsuit in 2013 to block the creation of the database, but the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state.

Banking Department Superintendent John D. Harrison said the database has blocked several thousand loans because they were over the cumulative $500 limit.

“It’s working,” Harrison said.

Harrison said payday loans are “not a bad product” if used correctly as an occasional source of short-term cash for an emergency. He said the department wanted to do more analysis on data collected from the database.

The banking department figures provided the number of loans, but did not show how many were given to repeat customers.

Farley said that is a key piece of information she wants to see.

“This is a cycle of debt. This is the snake eating its tail. I come in the first time, I’ve got to come back eight times. That is what the national data shows,” Farley said.