Can anyone tell me why This shit isn’t illegal?
Efforts renewed to control excessive cost of payday loans
Posted 11/30/2006 8:40 PM ET
By Sue Kirchhoff, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — One of the nation's top banking regulators Thursday announced new efforts to develop alternatives to payday loans and other high-cost products, citing an "astonishing" gap in the cost of credit that is penalizing disadvantaged borrowers.
This little tidbit caught my eye as I logged onto to my ISP tonight. I know the ‘typical’ US consumer is spending 120% of their income struggling to make ends meet and that some military personnel were getting in trouble with ‘unscrupulous’ lenders who were damaging their credit but this is the first I’ve heard of ‘payday’ loans never mind ‘renewed efforts’.
The report by the Center for Responsible Lending found an average payday borrower paid $793 for a $325 loan. Further, it said that 90% of payday revenue came from borrowers who were unable to pay the balance and fees by the due date, forcing them to repeatedly roll over the loans.
Annual fees can run from about 300% to 1,000%. There are about 22,000 U.S. payday outlets.
Okay, I know there’s been a lot of shit going on...so much that it’s hard to keep up...but can anyone tell me exactly when LOANSHARKING became legal?
Usury is a crime...or at least it used to be! Yet the article goes on...
Bair's speech is the latest in a series of efforts to combat the rapid proliferation of alternative lenders. A new federal law will impose a 36% annual interest cap on payday loans to the military. States are setting tighter standards on mortgage and payday lending.
What the hell happened to the laws we USED to have against charging exorbitant amounts of interest?
The maximum amount of interest a lender could charge USED TO BE 18%. Then it bumped up to 21%...a short time later it jumped to 24%. The last time I looked it appeared to be 29%.
Um, where did this 300 to 1,000% shit come from...and more importantly, how ‘vulnerable’ is the average citizen now that such...’extortion’ is suddenly legal?
At what point does this kind of predatory lending get classified as loansharking? I guess it’s not considered loansharking these days so long as nobody comes around and ‘busts you up’ for not paying the juice...or do they?
How ironic is it that some clown won a Nobel Prize for making ‘micro loans’ with shit like this going on?
So it seems the feds are taking action...to protect military personnel [at ‘only’ 36%!] but this doesn’t tell us what they’re doing [if anything] to protect the rest of us.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...if the bastards [that REALLY run this country] are looking to start a revolt, they’re certainly headed in the right direction!
Um, would the 18% of you who yawned at $56,000 kindly take a powder, the other 70% of us need to huddle.
Look at this will you! This is our government in action. They KNOW the GI’s don’t make as much on active duty as they do on their regular jobs, which is how they end up in trouble in the first place, but this is how they ‘protect’ them...by putting a 36% cap on interest rather than banning the practice altogether!
What’s the matter with these idiots?
You all know better than to go to a ‘secondary’ lender but how long will it be until those of us without a pot to piss in or a window the throw it out of are put behind the same eight-ball?
They even call them ‘payday’ loans! How loud do they have to tell you that they don’t care if your paycheck doesn’t crack your nut? Not only don’t they care, the greedy bastards built an industry around it!
Bend over and say ‘AH’.
It’s one thing to put your head in a vise but this...this is over the top! What makes it worse is that they’re picking us off a few at a time. They’ve made it so you live or die by your freakin’ credit score!
Yeah, I know they’re still reading...probably hoping I’ll say something stupid like "Impeach nothin’, we should round the criminal bastards up and LYNCH ‘EM..." But I’m being careful and besides...this is just between us, right?
I’ve said my piece, what say you?
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner