payday-loans
(Ninja M.)
(eyetwist)
(Photo: Ed McCulloch)
—>Do you need cash right now, but are worried that you might lose your job in the next two weeks? Guarantees for customers who lose their jobs have worked for Hyundai, Ford, GM, and Sears, so now the practice has expanded to the payday loan industry. More »
—>The Better Business Bureau has released a warning to be aware of scammers calling to threaten people with arrest "within the hour" for defaulting on payday loans. What makes them stand out from normal debt collecting scammers is these callers have huge amounts of personal info on their victims, including Social Security and drivers license numbers; old bank account numbers; names of employers, relatives, and friends; and home addresses. More »
—>Why would you ever take out a loan at 400% interest? Because you're absolutely desperate, or because you have no idea what 400% interest actually means. Well, many people do it every two weeks. It's called a payday loan, and Slate has an article discussing the findings of a recent study on these "storefront loan sharks". More »
—>Listen to the payday loan industry and their apologists and they'll try to tell you that their customers are savvy and just need of a break to tide them over. But a new survey (PDF) shows that most payday loans are to repay other payday loans. Of the 80% of borrowers who take out multiple payday loans in a year: More »
—>A House subcommittee wants to legalize payday loans with interest rates of up to 391%. Lobbyists from the payday industry bought Congress' support by showering influential members, including Chairman Luiz Gutierrez, with campaign cash. The Congressman is now playing good cop, bad cop with the payday industry, which is pretending to oppose his generous gift of a bill. More »
—>For about 30 years, there has been effectively no limit on the interest rates lenders can charge. This means some loans—especially payday loans, tax refund anticipation loans, overdraft protection loans, and car title loans—can have effective interest rates as high as 3,500%. More »
—>ABCNews says that the West Virginia Attorney General is warning people about fake debt collectors who will call you repeatedly at home and at work, threatening you with arrest for not paying a debt... that doesn't even exist. More »
—>Ohio payday lenders, still smarting from their punch in the face, are turning to lies and deceit to qualify a ballot initiative that would overturn the state's recently approved usury limits. The industry's petition gatherers are telling people that the initiative would "lower interest rates," even though it would raise the maximum allowable APR from 28% to an astounding 391%. They're also giving dollars to illiterate homeless people who sign the petition. More »
House Bill 545 would slash the current interest rates charged by payday lenders to 28 percent, down from 391 percent, prohibit loans terms of less than 31 days, and limit borrowers to four loans per year. It would ban Internet payday lending, and it also attempts to encourage lenders to get into the small-loan business. More »
Research shows that, despite charging high interest rates, payday lenders don't make much money than typical businesses. [Credit Slips] More »
—>Are you trapped in a payday loan death cycle, or have a friend or family member who is? See, the problem with a payday loan is that some people aren't able to pay the first one off (if you don't have money in the first place, you're not going to be any better off two weeks later!), and then have to take out more and more loans to cover each loan they couldn't pay off. Not only is there high interest, there's fees. A former PayDay loan lender on personalbudgettraining.com shares his advice for breaking out of the debt trap.
If you can't get out of this right now, start by advancing $50 less per pay period. Take the difference of what you were paying us in fees and start paying it into an emergency fund. Grab a job delivering pizzas, babysitting, whatever, and pay it into an emergency fund. Borrow less and less from us. Use the EF for actual emergencies. Once you are out of this, don't get back into it.Earn more, borrow less, and pay off more. More »
—>New Hampshire will become the latest state to keep payday lenders from gouging their patrons. A measure passed by the legislature will cap interest rates on payday loans at 36%, a drastic change for an industry used to bludgeoning underbanked consumers with interest rates exceeding 500%. Payday borrowers spend an average of $793 trying to repay a $325 loan. Let's see how the economic leeches spin this as a loss for consumers. More »
