A $50 origination fee
November 8, 2010 | California, alternatives | Comments (1)Another so-called “alternative” to payday lending. From the story:
Gutierrez started Progreso Financiero — whose name translates to Progress Financial — as a “social entrepreneuring” research project six years ago while earning an MBA at Stanford University.
The proposition: If poor people from Bangladesh to Bolivia can be good credit risks, as a global boom in so-called microlending has proved, why not the millions of immigrants working in the United States?
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Progreso’s typical 26% interest rate, plus its $50 origination fee for loans, works out to an average annual percentage rate of 36%. That’s twice the average APR for bank credit cards. But it’s well below interest rates that can top 450% at some payday lenders or pawn shops, often the only options for low-income borrowers.
It depends on the size and length of the average loan, doesn’t it?
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Typical PC rubbish that passes for reporting. I think LA Times trumps them all. And that is quite an accomplishment!
I can’t imagine why circulation numbers are swirling down the porcelain bowl of obsolescence.