From our friend at PDLindustryblog (who also has a couple of new posts of his own)  regarding the credit union alternative discussed below:

Now, we’ve seen this before and it’s ironic that you never hear a follow up story. In Illinois, South Side Community Federal received a $50k subsidy from Chase bank. The end result? They never tell you. The do offer a PAL (payday alternative loan). Here’s the catch: If your credit score is under 650, you have to put up $250 in cash as collateral to get up to a $500 loan.

Good luck with that one.

Why not let Terry McAuliffe know how you feel about his constant diatribes against the payday lending industry?

• info@terrymcauliffe.com
• Friends of Terry McAuliffe
• P.O. Box 778
• McLean, VA 22101
• 571-633-4800

The writers at the State (S.C.) newspaper have no quit in ‘em.

The Center for Responsible Lending praised the credit card bill without even tweaking Senators about not passing a rate cap.  From the story:

The Center for Responsible Lending, one of numerous consumer advocacy groups that had long sought credit card reform, praised the Senate’s action.

“This bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support, will provide consumers with significant protections from industry practices that extract billions of dollars in unfair fees and interest from cardholders every year. We applaud the Committee for crafting safeguards for millions of American families at a time when our country is experiencing the worst downturn since the Great Depression,” said CRL’s president, Michael Calhoun, in a statement.

Regarding the credit union alternative below:

Wait till they make exactly Zero Dollars from this and they actually start having people default. My guess is within a year this product will not be offered at their credit union.

I hate when  words like “reasonable” “practical” and “common sense” are thrown into an argument.    They are all in the eyes of the holder.  So behold this editoral in the Calgary Herald: 

On principle, this newspaper advocates a free market and sharp limits to government interference in the economy.

Except when it doesn’t.   The article calls for regulation on payday lending.

They keep pushing the line that–get this–payday lenders make political contributions.  In this case, they seem to have gotten something wrong.

Larry Meyers at Bloggernewsnetwork doesn’t mince words: 

I think it would be helpful for legislators and policy makers if they got a glimpse into the real world of how a payday loan business runs, so this rate cap argument can be removed from abstraction.

Half the stores in America are owned by mom and pops. They are entrepreneurs. They’ve scraped together $25,000 to open a single store. On top of that, they’ve likely taken most of their life savings and borrowed from family, friends, and a bank. They’ll use that money to fund the $8000 monthly store overhead they have, to fund the loans they make, and to pay themselves just enough each week to feed their family.

The whole thing is a good read.

This passage of the credit card bill may be good for the payday lending industry.  It gave  Congress a chance to pass a consumer finance protection bill that will get it the political credit it wants.  It could take the steam out of payday lending legislation.

Or, it creates momentum for further regulations of consumer finance services.  Time will tell.

Look at the restrictions on this so-called “alternative” payday loan:

Applicants must be a member of the $169 million Family First FCU for at least three months, have direct deposit and be employed for a minimum of three months not including seasonal work.

What if someone is not a member but needs money now?