Published by admin on 28 Mar 2009
How Will Payday Lenders Be Affected by New Bill in Congress?
The following is from the blog site: Seeking Alpha, by Larry Meyers, March 26, 2009.
Part 1 in a series
Senator Richard Durbin has a curious new bill he’s flogging around Washington. The deceptively titled S. 500, “Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Rates of Credit Act”, only serves Sen. Durbin and his big banking contributors. Why? Because it seeks to effectively eliminate all forms of short-term credit except one - bounced check fees from banks.
I’ve already covered the outrageous scam being perpetrated on consumers by the banks, and I didn’t even discuss how these banks automatically opt consumers into their ODP programs. Now it seems the banks have a friend in Senator Durbin.Families in need of short-term credit - generally used to help make ends meet, to pay a car mechanic so they can get to work, to help pay a utility bill - are able to turn to any number of alternative financial services. Payday loans, of which I am a common sense advocate, are one such service. As I’ve explained many times, payday loans are a reasonably priced product used 154 million times in 2008 by millions of Americans. They use these loans of their own free will, all fees and terms are clearly disclosed, and 94% of customers pay the loan back on time (contrary to the myths you read in the media). Due to the 6% default rate and average monthly store overhead of $8000, these lenders cannot make a profit unless they are able to charge about $15 per hundred borrowed.
Consumers facing a necessary expense and caught short between paydays must often choose between costly and undesirable options: pay the bill now and face bounced check or overdraft protection fees; pay the bill late and incur late payment penalties; borrow from a payday or title lender to cover the bill; or go over-the-limit on their credit card.
Sen. Durbin’s bill would create a federal rate cap of 36% on all forms of short term credit.
Sen. Durbin claims this is “good for the consumer”, but he ignores the litany of non-partisan, non-biased studies proving that consumers fare worse when such credit is restricted, as has happened in numerous states recently. He also ignores that fact that almost 100,000 people will be put out of work! Think about that. Here we are in a recession, and Durbin is deliberately proposing to put one hundred thousand people on the unemployment line. SHAME ON YOU, Senator.
And yet, how interesting that the one form of credit - bouncing checks - is mysteriously exempt from this new bill. That would create a monopoly in this space for the banks - the same institutions that have shown their altruistic caring for America by utterly destroying its economy in pursuit of subprime mortgages. Oops! Read More.�
