PA. Repub. Legislators Seeking to Bring Back High Interest Rate Pay-Day Lenders

[JPZenger]

Last edited Tue Jun 25, 2013, 09:17 AM - Edit history (3)

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130625_Payday_loans_are_back_on_Harrisburg_s_docket.html

Excerpts:

"Religious groups are leading efforts to snuff out newly revived legislation to legalize payday lending - the short-term, high-interest loans for people with no credit and no ability to obtain traditional bank loans.

Citing Scripture, they have characterized these storefront lenders - which closed up shop in Pennsylvania after a state Supreme Court ruling in 2010 set interest rates so low that the business was no longer profitable - as predators on the poor. "There is a theological basis for usury," said Steve Drachler, executive director of United Methodist Advocacy in Pennsylvania. "When Jesus went to the Temple, one of the few instances where he showed anger was in driving out the money lenders. This is no different than that."

Now, say Drachler and others, industry lobbyists are trying to muzzle them with threatening letters and personal attacks online and in newspapers. "It smacks of desperation to personally attack people in the faith community who are speaking out against payday lending," said the Rev. Sandra Strauss, a Presbyterian minister and public advocacy director for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches."

----
here's some valuable information on the issue that was put together for religious leaders:

http://www.responsiblelending.org/allies/faith-and-credit/Modern-Day-Usury-The-Payday-Loan-Trap.pdf

----
Website dedicated to this issue:

http://www.stoppaydayloanspa.com/faq.html

Excerpt:

"Myth: PA needs a law to regulate abusive internet loans.

REALITY: Pennsylvania law has successfully stopped abusive Internet payday loans for years. Loans made over the Internet in violation of current law are void and unenforceable. In 2010, the Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court unanimously held that the loans made by Texas-based Cash America over the Internet to Pennsylvanians were illegal because they carried charges ranging from 260% to over 600% APR. In other words, Internet loans are already highly and effectively regulated in our state."
-----

By the way, the legislature is now using a new term. They are now called something like micro-loans, not predatory payday loans.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Mainline protestants leading the effort to keep onerous usury illegal

I doubt you'll see much - if anything - from the fundies, who often ascribe to 'prosperity theology' and see nothing wrong with enriching the godly 'job creators' in the payday loan industry through fleecing of the heathens who need their services.

[blue neen]

2. Can't these legislators find ONE, just ONE, piece of legislation that is GOOD for PA?

The money we're wasting on these crooks is a crime.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Micro-loans.

A piece of shit by any other name smells the same.

How anyone cannot see that these loans are abusive and unconscionable is beyond me. They are a trap that will slowly drain everything from people who take them out. Seriously, 260% to 600% APR!

But I say, go for it, Repugs....piss off the reasonable religious people. (Although Jesus throwing the moneychangers out of the temple was not a condemnation of moneychangers, it was a statement about doing these non-religious things in a church. But I won't argue about that as long as they are fighting this.)

[JPZenger]

4. Jesus said "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil"

Jesus is often misquoted to say "Money is the root of all evil." He actually said the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. It is not money that is the problem, but people who prey upon the needy for their own greed.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. And these loan sharks are the most evil. nt