The historically more conscientious, deliberative Senate must rescue consumers from a flimsy payday lending bill hastily passed by the House that would solidify payday lenders’ grip on our state.
The House bill would do nothing to stop payday lenders from making repeated loans to borrowers at triple-digit interest rates. It’s up to senators to push for strong protections that help keep consumers from drowning in a long-term cycle of debt.
The best remedy is to ban payday lending, but many lawmakers oppose that. Fine: Then regulate the industry tightly so it does what it continually alleges is its aim ”” to provide short-term, emergency loans. That shouldn’t be hard for the Senate. It passed strong legislation last session to do just that, only to have Speaker Bobby Harrell, who authored the industry-friendly legislation the House passed last week, sabotage it.
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The House’s payday lender-friendly bill would limit the number of loans a consumer can get to one at a time and require a database be used to enforce the limit. But it also would double the maximum amount of a loan, from $300 to $600.
[i] An Editorial from the (South Carolina) State: Senators must protect consumers, not payday lenders [/i]
Agreed. Charging interest on loaned money is legitimate, but there should be some limits.
I shudder to think that this process would repeat what are already are going through.
My experience with payday lenders and their ilk is primarily in garrison towns outside military installations. The rapaciousness of those predators never ceases to appall me. Uncounted times I have had young soldiers and/or their teenage wives tell the same story of starting out with a small loan to “tide you over until pay day” that balloons through higher and higher interest rates and more and more rolling over of the principal until the effective interest rates become astronomical. One of the more sickening aspects of this sorry trade in places like Junction City, KS or Killeen, TX is that it is run by retired Command Sergeants Major who use the respect soldiers have for their rank to persuade and intimidate and who know perfectly well that the Army will make that young enlisted soldier pay the debt or will court martial him.
This is terrible. It is a shame that Senator Bob Corker, a well-known bought-and-paid-for lobbyist, makes it possible for payday lenders like W. Allan Jones and Check Into Cash continue to operate. Read below for even more disturbing information:
http://garyrivlin.com/2010/06/pioneers-of-subprime-allan-jones-and-the-payday-loan/