No Job? No Problem

Crain's Chicago Business  
June 30, 2009

The payday lending industry has added a new twist: providing high-cost, short-term credit to borrowers who are not working. While most fast-cash outlets still consider joblessness grounds for ineligibility, Illinois-based PLS Financial Services Inc. is willing to count unemployment checks as income. It charges borrowers annualized interest of 300 percent to 700 percent -- the same rate that employed borrowers pay. The firm's new niche has sparked criticism from consumer advocates, who want limits on how much PLS and other payday lenders can charge customers. "It's just a sad way of doing business when you have to charge people a 700 percent rate that you know are living in hard times," says Citizen Action/Illinois co-director Lynda Delaforgue. "It's usury. This is kind of at the cutting edge of it." 

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