Yesterday in Washington, D.C. the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on predatory payday lending to military personnel. The issue creates some interesting political dynamics, with many conservatives taking offense at loans to marines, sailors, and other members of the military with intrest rates of between 390 and 900%. As far as committee meetings go, the hearing is pretty fun to watch (which admittedly is not saying much). A video can be easily watched on the Senate banking committee website. Here's a link.
Some of the highlights: At minute 1:29:50 Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) aggressively questions the president of the payday loan bar association ("Q: Do you think an 18-year-old taking out a 390% loan is conscionable; can you really, with a straight face tell me, that that is actually what you believe?"). At minute 1:06:26 Lynn Drysdale, a widely respected consumer lawyer from Jacksonville, Florida, shares some of the horror stories of her clients. And, somewhere around minute 1:20:50, I speculated that George Washington probably would not have tolerated 500% interest rate loans to the Continental Army.
A fun time was had by all--or at least by me.
The Arizona Credit Union System (ACUS) would be extremely pleased if the payday advance companies in the Grand Canyon State were eliminated, but its opinion is certainly fueled by the success of its own commerce. The credit union is stepping up its lobbying efforts to overthrow the competition and acquire all the former cash advance customers. Part of the campaign includes a mass e-mailing effort that is projected to reach up to 1.6 million credit union customers. The ACUS will persuade voters to vote against Proposition 200. Proposition 200 supports organizations like the Arizona Community Financial Services Association that declares Proposition 200 will actually lower state loan fees, eliminate extensions by presenting accommodating payment plans, regulate Internet lending and reduce the amount of walk-in stores in Arizona. These impending reforms will further help payday loan customers, and the reforms will also allow industry employees to keep their jobs. No one can afford to lose his or her job in this turbulent economy.
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Posted by: Payday Loan Advocate | Monday, October 20, 2008 at 05:23 AM
The bankers are very greedy they are just exploiting the innocent people by laving high interest rates which in turn lead to foreclosure.
Posted by: Peter | Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 02:14 AM
In these days of sub-prime loans and the housing market in such a downturn, many people are in danger of losing their homes. Many lenders issued adjustable loans that re-adjust periodically and many people may not have been aware of how much their payments could go up. Some of these people may now be in danger of foreclosure if they're unable to keep up with the payment increases.
http://www.thejohnbeck.tv
Posted by: John | Wednesday, December 05, 2007 at 10:23 AM