Posts Tagged ‘Payday Loans’

New Watchdog Agency Reviewing Payday Lending

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January 20th, 2012

Payday lending, an industry that brings in some $7 billion a year in fees nationwide

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said testimony from the session in Birmingham would help guide the development of future regulations. Recently appointed Director Richard Cordray said the bureau recognizes the need for short-term loans, but the lending needs to help consumers, not harm them. "Before this month, the federal government did not examine payday lenders," Cordray said. "Some state regulators have been examining payday lenders for compliance with their state laws. We hope to use our combined resources as effectively as possible."

Huge number of lenders

Officials said that about 19 million American households now have payday loans. With interest rates often in the teens and easy application procedures, lenders said they generate business through radio and television advertising, plus word-of-mouth and by locating offices in areas where other small-loan lenders are located. Many in the standing-room crowd of more than 400 were lending company customers or employees who wore "I Choose Payday Advance" stickers provided by the industry. Tanzy Bonner told a panel she got a payday loan to cover the cost of her 6-year-old’s birthday party; LaDonna Banks said she got one because she couldn’t work after donating a kidney to her brother.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Bureau has been in the spotlight because of Republican opposition to its formation and President Barack Obama’s use of a recess appointment earlier this month to tap Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, as its director. With GOP legislators blocking the nomination because they said the agency lacks sufficient congressional oversight, Obama installed Cordray.

Payday loans

Often criticized by advocates for the poor, payday loans are short-term, high-interest loans that work like cash advances. Storefront payday loan operations are prevalent in middle- to lower-income areas around Alabama, sometimes taking over closed convenience stores or fast-food restaurants. Loan amounts in Alabama are capped at $500 by state law, which limits the maximum interest rate to 17.5 percent. An industry website said the annualized interest rate for a 14-day loan of $100 tops 456 percent.

Typical loan

In a typical transaction, a borrower writes a check for $117.50 and gets $100 from the payday lender, who holds the check for a short period before depositing it. If the customer needs the check held another two weeks, he pays another $17.50 fee.

Officials said more than 20 percent of Alabama households have taken out loans from payday storefronts or similar businesses at more than 1,000 locations statewide. Opponents said the businesses prey on people who lack access to traditional loans when they get in a pinch for cash.

Gouging for loans

"People get churned through the system six, eight, 10 times a year," said Stephen Stetson, a policy analyst at Alabama Arise, a Montgomery-based anti-poverty organization. "If we have laws against gouging for gas and water, we ought to have laws against gouging for loans. Listening to what you heard here today, you’d think my thousands of employees go to work every day to hurt their neighbors," he said. Rather than enacting sweeping federal rules, he said, states should concentrate on getting rid of "bad actors" in the business.

Tags: Payday Loans, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Watchdog agency
Posted in Advance Cash Loan, Business, Cash Advance Loans, Economy, Employment, Finance, Loans, Money, Payday Loans, Personal / Internet | No Comments »

National Anti-Payday Lending Campaign on the Way

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January 18th, 2012

Campaign hopes to free one million Blacks from debt

Rev. Dr. DeForest Soaries, senior pastor of the 7,000 member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Garden in Somerset, NJ is launching a national effort against one of the most predatory lending products: payday loans. This church-based movement was inspired by hundreds of contacts and phone calls Soaries received following his appearance in a 2010 CNN documentary, Almighty Debt. Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, the documentary shared the financial struggles of Lincoln Garden members facing foreclosure, finding student financial aid and adjusting to long-term unemployment.

CNN

According to CNN, the documentary also became the network’s second-highest rated program that year with 13.8 million viewers. What began as a 90-minute television program turned into a year-long advocacy effort with four specific objectives:

Education: distribution of information through churches, barbershops, community centers;
Direct Action: coordinating protests in front of payday stores;
Alternatives to payday loans: identifying alternatives available through credit unions, minority banks and other lenders;
Public policy: working with local leaders to initiate actions to restrict payday and other predatory practices.

Payday lending ills

Over the past decade, the ills of payday lending have been a focus of the Center for Responsible Lending. Through a series of state-based efforts partnering with local advocates, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted payday reforms, saying ‘no’ to triple digit interest rates and downward spiraling debt. Additionally, federal law protects military members and their families from the typical 400 percent interest rates of payday loans.

Short term loans

In recent years, however, the growth of new versions of small-dollar, short term loans such as Internet and bank payday loans threaten to circumvent all of these hard-fought consumer victories. In particular, bank payday loans lead to 175 days of indebtedness for the average borrower, twice as long as the maximum length of time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has advised. With many banks allowing up to half of a customer’s monthly direct deposit income, or up to $750, an average 44 percent of a bank payday customer’s next deposit is used to repay bank payday loans. For older borrowers already living on fixed incomes, the average bank payday loan repayment from a Social Security check was 43 percent. Senior customers are also 2.6 times more likely to have used a bank payday loan than bank customers as a whole.

Older adults

Even without bank payday loans, more than 13 million older adults are considered economically insecure, living on $21,800 per year or less. One-fifth of older households have annual incomes below $50,000 but report spending more than 40 percent of their income on debt payments.

CRL research

CRL research has shown that communities of color are particularly vulnerable to payday loans. Across the country, the concentration of storefront lenders is typically greater in black and brown communities. Additionally, Missouri is the only state outside the Deep South with the greatest number of payday stores per capita. Persons and organizations desiring to join the advocacy effort are advised to contact Pastor Soaries at: fbc@fbcsomerset.com .

Tags: CRL Research, Payday Loans, Short term loans
Posted in Advance Cash Loan, Business, Economy, Employment, Finance, Loans, Money | No Comments »

CAUGHT FOR STEALING PAYDAY LOANS

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January 5th, 2012

Woman who headed Dwelling House scandal gets 12 1/2 years

This 44 year old woman, Elexa Manos-Becton, has spent her adult life stealing and getting token punishments. Today, finally, the woman who found an accounting glitch and terminally undermined Dwelling House Savings & Loan was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering, and ordered to do what she can to pay back the $2.47 million she and friends siphoned from the venerable Hill District institution.

What she discovered

The Coraopolis woman accidentally discovered that if she took out payday loans and instructed the lenders to take repayment from a Dwelling House account that did not have sufficient funds, she was never charged for the withdrawal. So she settled down and repeated the exercise about 200 times. She also shared the discovery with at least two friends who she met in jail, plus her son, all of whom have pleaded guilty.

Apologies

"I’d like to publicly apologize to the Lavelles, the Hill District family that owned Dwelling House, the employees and the customers," Ms. Manos-Becton said. "It was not my intention to put the bank out of business. "

Sentence

Her attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jay J. Finkelstein, said she should get a 92-month sentence in light of her psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol problems, troubled childhood and occasional attempts to cooperate with prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hull, though, pointed out that Ms. Manos-Becton has 29 convictions in her past, including 20 for thefts and others for drug, gun and prostitution crimes. During the years when she was bleeding Dwelling House, she spent the money on drugs and "exorbitant living," he said. U.S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch said her life was "an endless pattern of criminal behavior.

Culmination of a lifetime

"The defendant has received only slaps on the wrist," Judge Bloch said, so she "kept rolling the dice. This crime seems to be the culmination of a lifetime spent stealing." Ms. Manos-Becton’s bond was revoked and she was immediately taken into custody by U.S. marshals. Her son, Dimitri Manos, and friend Veronica Smith are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, closing out the prosecutions of the four people indicted in Dwelling House’s demise.

Tags: Crime, Payday Loans, Theft
Posted in Business, Economy, Loans, Payday Loans | No Comments »

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