Payday Pundit

From Sarah Johnson:
The Payday lending store that I work at, HAD to close 19 of it’s stores due to Bill 545. The remainder of the 9 left may still be closing. The wonderful legislators of Ohio have made the comment that the Payday lending jobs were NOT worth saving…..Well, then they can give me a […]

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Payday lending advocates have just learned that they have enough qualifying petition signatures to put their initiative on the ballot in November.  Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen!
Check the official Reform AZ Payday Loans website to keep up to date.

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As mentioned earlier on the Payday Pundit, U.S. Senators Akaka, Schumer, Lieberman, and Inouye have introduced a bill that would create a grant program within the Department of the Treasury.
The grant would encourage the “development of affordable payday loan alternatives at mainstream financial institutions. Consumers who apply for these loans would be provided with financial literacy […]

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Following up on their story about lobbyist spending in Virgina, the Richmond Times-Dispatch released an editorial that breezily balanced our right to free speech with politicians’ right to eliminate jobs and limit choice:
Industries and groups that fear their profits and interests are under threat will work to defend themselves. We supported curbs on predatory lending. […]

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Senators Akaka, Schumer, Lieberman, and Inouye introduced legislation that would help low income individuals obtain bank accounts as well as provide grants to banks and credit unions to offer alternatives to payday loans.
The Payday Pundit fully supports programs that help people obtain bank accounts and financial knowledge.  But in making their arguments against payday lending […]

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From SmartMoney.com via WalletPop, this article makes a clear case for why overdraft fees and credit card cash advances are not always the smart alternative the “experts” make them out to be.  A sample:
3. “We change our interest rates all the time.”
Regardless of what your credit card agreement says, you can never be sure how […]

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With more people losing their jobs across the country and those looking for a job finding it tougher to land work Ohio picked a strange time to run 6,000 jobs out of the state.  From the AP:
The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to a four-year high of 5.7 percent in July as employers cut 51,000 jobs, […]

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Still more action in the Congress to get the system of credit card billing and overdraft charges under control.  CNN reports:
The House Financial Services Committee voted 39-27 in favor of legislation that would prohibit or restrict practices such as interest rate increases on the existing balance of a cardholder who has been making on-time payments […]

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In the spirit of Wendy’s great ad campaign from the 1980’s, “Where’s the data?” may just have to be Payday Pundit’s new go to response to critics.  In this piece, Julie McAdory of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in New Orleans tries to claim a significant number of people are turning to payday loans in […]

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