Stop The Payday Lending

Daily News Record
August 16, 2010

According to this Daily-News Record editorial, "Payday lenders are predators who exploit the poor and others suffering financial misfortune." The writers say that it is with good reason that the Harrisonburg City Council wants the Virginia State General Assembly to act and cap the annual interest rate on payday loans at 36 percent. Echoing the concerns of Vice Mayor Richard Baugh and Councilman David Wiens, the article argues that payday lending is exploitative, unhelpful, and usurious -- with accrued interest rates that can reach up to 584 percent annually. Payday lenders do not take the time to complete credit checks to verify that borrowers can pay and instead "trumpet their free-wheeling, no-credit-check loan policies and expect that borrower can't repay," says the piece. The payday lending process "opens the door to one more loan written against a bum check, and then another, which astronomically increases the interest rate." The writers conclude, "The General Assembly should cap the interest rate for payday loans at 36 percent, with no other fees allowed. This predatory practice must stop."
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