Scores of Oregon payday and car title lenders have closed their doors as a 36 percent interest rate cap and other new regulations took effect last week.

Gone are the 520 percent annual interest rates that were common among payday lenders before the Legislature recently passed new regulations. Gone, too, are many of the lenders. But among those who remain, borrowers will find their small, short-term loans cost about a third of what they cost before.

At least 60 payday loan stores have closed or surrendered their licenses since June 1, says Charles Donald, supervising examiner at the state Department of Consumer and Business Services.

Luanne Stoltz left a 20-year career as a high school math and science teacher years ago to open two payday stores in Portland. She has closed them both and says she doesn't know what she will do next. "I'm out of business," she said.

Check 'n Go Inc., a payday lender based in Mason, Ohio, will close its 21 Oregon stores because of the new regulations, a spokesman said. Advance America, Cash Advance of Spartanburg, S.C., the nation's largest payday loan company, is evaluating whether it can keep its 45 Oregon stores open, said Jamie Fulmer, director of investor relations for the company, which operates in 37 states.

"The economic situation that exists in Oregon currently is one that we think is prohibitive," Fulmer said.

Northwestern Title Co., based near Atlanta, has stopped making car title loans in its 17 Oregon stores, which it is preparing to close, said Ken Wayco, president. Car title loans are similar to payday loans except they use car titles rather than the borrower's next paycheck as collateral.

Northwestern recently filed a lawsuit in Marion County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the new law that caps interest at 36 percent for all consumer loans.

"Unless we prevail in the suit there, we're all out of business," Wayco said.

Still, more than 200 payday lenders are doing business, at least for now, under the Legislature's new regulations.

"It looks like some businesses are able to provide more affordable loans, and that sounds like a real win for the community and consumers," said Patty Wentz, spokeswoman for Our Oregon, a nonprofit progressive coalition that led the fight for laws regulating payday and car title lenders.

The new laws allow payday and car title lenders to charge an origination fee of $10 per $100 loaned, though no more than $30 for a loan of any amount. Loans must be for at least 31 days. Lenders can charge 36 percent annual interest, or about $3 per $100 in addition to the origination fee.

That means lenders can charge a total of $13 per $100, which amounts to an annual interest rate of about 154 percent for a 31-day loan.

Borrowers in the past sometimes became trapped in debt by repeatedly extending or rolling over their loans. Lenders would commonly charge $20 per $100 for the original two-week loan and then charge another $20 if the borrower chose to roll over the loan for another two weeks. After three rollovers, borrowers owed $80 for every $100 they borrowed. Now lenders cannot charge any more than 36 percent on rollovers.

Several payday lenders on Southeast Powell Boulevard visited by The Oregonian last week had announced they simply will not do rollovers. Two stores offered 31-day loans for $100, $200 or $300 with no rollovers. And the law requires a seven-day break between loans.

That break put Rosario Doctolero, 52, in a bind last week. Doctolero, a medical aide in Southeast Portland, and her husband have struggled to pay off several payday loans. They paid off one $685 debt last week with plans to immediately take out another loan to attend a wedding in Los Angeles. But they had to wait seven days to borrow again, and that meant no loan before the wedding.

Still, Doctolero said she is glad to see the new regulations. "We should learn to budget so we don't have so many payday loans," she said.

Check Into Cash Inc., near Southeast 79th Avenue on Powell, offers small loans of as much as $500 under the new regulations.

The store now charges about $45 for a $500 loan over 31 days, a sharp drop from the $110 it previously collected on the same loan for two weeks, said Kyle Utzman, assistant manager. The company has closed some stores to consolidate business with hopes of making up in volume what it loses in fees, he said.

"It is hard at this point to say how it is going to go for the company or the customers," he said.

Down the road, two workers in a dark, empty store under signs that read Payday Loans and U.S. Title Loans said they have stopped making loans. Fast Bucks, another payday lender on Powell, posted a note on its door reading "This location is now closed effective July 3, 2007." It referred customers to other stores in Portland.

A sign proclaiming Cash Advances Cash Store labels another payday lender on Powell that now crouches empty in a parking lot sprouting weeds. A note on the store refers borrowers to its store in Vancouver, Wash.

There payday lenders can still charge 390 percent interest.