This is why they’re losing readers
March 16, 2009 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)The Cleveland Plain Dealer strikes again with a strident editorial criticizing payday for not going out of business. At least that’s our interepretation of it.
Let’s repeat, after the 28% rate cap was imposed, lenders got a different license and offered a different services, as they were encourage to do.
“Service at a Value”
February 22, 2009 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, customers, employees, industry, media coverage, personal finance | Comments (2)Ted Saunders, the CEO of Checksmart, an Ohio-based payday lender, has a great op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today:
The simple fact, one that your article failed to accurately note, is that borrowers under the Mortgage Loan Act are paying far less for their loans than they were under the former payday loan laws. When a borrower takes a check or money order as proceeds of a loan, the borrower may (and many do) take that instrument to his or her bank and deposit it free of charge. For the borrowers who deposit or cash their checks at their own bank, their real cost for a two-week $400 loan is under $30, which is less than the $60 paid by them under the former payday loan law and less, according to the FDIC, than the cost of an overdraft at an FDIC bank.
The Plain Dealer’s criticism of former payday lenders turning to other legislative enactments for alternative business models is misguided because it fails to recognize the significant cost savings benefitting consumers and because the decision to turn to these alternatives came directly from the Ohio Legislature. Apparently, in The Plain Dealer’s eyes, only banks should be permitted to extend credit to Ohioans, regardless of their higher fees.
The editorial writers at the Cleveland Plain Dealer are reflexively hostile to business. It’s great to see a payday lending CEO taking them to task.
Newspapers don’t’ get it
February 17, 2009 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, regulation | Comments (0)Ohio is hurting bad and the Cleveland Plain Dealer wants to put more workers on the unemployment line.
Payday lenders can’t win with the media
February 16, 2009 | COHHIO, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, alternatives, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)Ohio lenders are being criticized for complying with Ohio’s new law Short-term Loan Act. Seems fairly ridiculous, but the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s consumer columnist goes on the attack:
By nudging the loan amount to just above $500, lenders can double the loan origination fees from $15 to $30. The Small Loan and Mortgage Lending acts allow the fees on top of the 28 percent interest, something the new law doesn’t permit.
Last year, payday stores gave loans to customers as cash, but this year lenders present loans in the form of checks or money orders, which they then charge additional fees to cash.
What we take away from this story is that Ohioans still need short-term loans and payday lenders are doing their best to provide them.
A consumer columnist’s holiday wish
December 19, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, alternatives, industry | Comments (0)From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Lawmakers would start cracking down on banks and their fees the same way they have on payday lenders.
Here’s a better idea. How about every industry is transparent about their fees and they all compete for customers?
Bank fees on Ohio ballot?
December 1, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, alternatives, industry | Comments (0)Nah, it’s just one Cleveland Plain Dealer reader’s suggestion.
We couldn’t say it any better.
November 20, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, alternatives, industry | Comments (2)From a letter to editor in today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer
Bank fees will have you longing for a payday loan
Posted by Raphael W. Hardman/Cleveland November 20, 2008 11:31AM
Well, Ohio, with banks increasing fees and overdrafts nearing $40 per occurrence, I guess voting for Issue 5 wasn’t such a good idea after all. You better start praying that you don’t get laid off or fired (payday loan No. 1). Or that it stays warm this winter (loan No. 2). There is no increase in food prices (loan No. 3). And you don’t bounce a check (loan No. 4).
Just one of these emergencies will start the run on multiple payday loans. But now there’s a limit.
The same people who brought you Issue 5 have turned a blind eye to the banking industry that is begging its victims for help while at the same time robbing them blind. I guess $15 per $100 wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
Thanks, Ohio General Assembly. Good looking out.
Ugly and Uglier
November 5, 2008 | Arizona, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, states | Comments (1)From the Arizona AP:
Also rejected were Propositions 105, 200, 201 and 300.
Prop 200 would have allowed payday loan outlets to stay in business under new rules while Prop 105 was a proposed amendment that would have made it more difficult to pass initiatives.
The final vote will not be pretty.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
About 64 percent of the voters approved keeping the caps. Kim Norris, a spokeswoman for the lender group, said: “We remain deeply concerned for our employees who rely on their jobs to support their families and customers who rely on these needed services.”
Don’t read while eating
November 2, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, Thomas Suddes, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (9)The odius Thomas Suddes, Ohio’s Michael Moore, has weighed in on Issue 5 in today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer.
YES or NO from the Cleveland Plain Dealer
October 31, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (1)A straightfoward explaination of Ohio’s ballot initiatives. Never thought we’d see something so unbiased in the Dealer
