Payday Pundit

An in depth and balanced piece in Sunday’ New York Times Magazine.   It looks at the checking cashing/payday lending phenomenon through the eyes on one businessman, Tom Nix, of Southern California.  From the piece: 
Today’s financial crisis has many origins. But here’s one cause that is often overlooked: Traditional bankers badly misread the market for financial services in […]

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This CBS News story highlights the rising number of complaints against online lenders.    It’s harder to regulate online lenders so if you ban storefronts, the result is consumers going online for loans.  The smartest thing legislatures can do for consumers is to impose a reasonable regulatory scheme that keeps storefront lenders open.

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The Community Financial Services Association of America has hit back at a phony “consumer” group scorecard which grades states on their lending rules.  From the CFSA news release: 

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), two out-of-touch “consumer” groups which feel they have the authority to grade state lending laws, were […]

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Goes to Susan Tompor at the Detroit Free Press.   Below are some statements she makes in her piece with the Payday Pundit’s comments in bold:
Debt traps — including high-cost advances on a paycheck — are crushing many Michigan consumers.
PP:   She provides absolutely NO evidence of this, not even the usual anecdotal nonsense we’ve come to expect.
As […]

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Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and the National Consumer Law Center have given two more states failing grades for offering choices to consumers.  Illinois and Missouri received straight F’s for having a multitude of short term credit options available to consumers.

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Boston’s National Consumer Law Center and Washington’s Consumer Federation of America give the Bay State two F’s for giving their citizenry financial choices.  There is something very wrong with this picture.

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CNN reports: Automatic overdraft loans can look like a consumer’s best friend, but they can come at a steep cost.
Our friends at the Consumer Federation of America had this to say: “Banks should have to get their customers’ affirmative consent before signing them up for their most expensive loans.”  And the Center for Responsible Lending added, […]

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