The Newark (Ohio) Advocate says this today: 

Even though Lundy’s Ohio proposal sounds rational on the surface and deserves a full hearing, we think it again crosses the line of what should be regulated and what might create new problems or implications for all lenders. It also fails to address the reality of Internet payday sites that fall outside the scope of Ohio law.

That last point is really important.  If you close storefront payday lenders, Internet lenders fill the void.

Checksmart is a national payday lending company headquarted in Oho.  CEO Ted Saunders made some frank comments to the Newark (Ohio) Advocate:

“Nobody is going to do business under what HB 545 created,” Saunders said. “I have 700 employees in the state, and I’d like to make a go of it. We have a window of opportunity to keep the doors open.”

Saunders said he will evaluate the stores’ viability in a couple of months or sooner. The alternatives never will make things as lucrative for the business but might be enough for them to survive, he said.

Checksmart also has stores outside Ohio, which gives it an opportunity for survival that others do not have.

Some bank employee in Ohio urges a YES vote on Issue 5 (a Yes vote retains the rate cap law).  No where in this letter does he say his bank can give customers a short-term loan.

The Newark (OH) Advocate couldn’t decide whether a YES or NO vote was better on Ohio issue 5, so the editorial board wrote a vote YES editorial and a vote NO editorial.  

Maybe this is a sign of how close the vote will be.

This article contains some video of Bill Faith, anti-payday lending extremist, and Ted Saunders of CheckSmart, an Ohio-based payday lender.    Click on the links a little bit below the pictures.

We think Saunders won this hands down.

I think this article makes pretty clear which Attorney General candidate in Ohio is supportive of the payday lending industry. 

A powerful letter to the editor in Ohio’s Newark Advocate from a manager at a Cashland store.

Mike Sussman appreciates the fact the payday loans are completely undertstandable as opposed the his incomprehensible credit card statement.       His column in the Newark Advocate concludes with this:

I have spent most of my life in the lending and lending subsidiary business. It has been my experience that banks will make ridiculous loans to questionable business entities at low rates of interest while denying the small borrower anything other than high interest short-term credit card loans. Please see Skybus and Enron.

Payday lending, while expensive, is the last line of defense for the financially overburdened low credit score consumer. Taking this option away will only increase the amount of hardship in a state already overwhelmed by foreclosure. Consumers, unlike Bear Stearns, will have nowhere to turn for immediate financing.

Melissa Lutz, owner of Fast Check Cash Advance in Newark, Ohio, is worried about her customers if the Ohio House legislation becomes law: 

 We have a lot of customers that are going to have nowhere to go to get short-term loans,” she said. “If our legislature will look at other states that have (capped lending rates) … the people in that state are worse afterwards than they are before.”

The article also has comments from Ms. Lutz’s employee who is worried about her job and health benefits.  Are Ohio state senators listening?