They’re out of argument
March 9, 2010 | Colorado, industry, regulation | Comments (0)How do I know? Because they are using the “everyone knows” rhetoric of a demagogue. Read the story and let your blood boil.
Don’t let facts get in the way…
February 27, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (1)of a good anti-business diatribe. From the Aurora (CO) Sentinel:
The reality is that the average payday loan is about $350, and the average borrower has to pay about $570 in interest in fees to get the loan, according to the state attorney general.
That’s NOT the reality. That’s a lie. They are making the assumption that the average borrower is rolling over an original loan instead of getting new credit.
Stunningly balanced column
February 27, 2010 | Colorado, industry, positive media coverage | Comments (0)Hats off to Vincent Carroll at the Denver Post:
Still, what’s the alternative for these serial borrowers, and for the many others who use payday loans as an occasional cushion against an unexpected expense or to pay a bill that can no longer be ignored? These people have jobs and checking accounts, otherwise they wouldn’t qualify for a payday loan. They’re not mentally incompetent. They make choices involving money all the time.
And they are far better aware of their actual options — excruciatingly aware, no doubt — than lawmakers or the average voter.
The Bell Policy Center, an ardent opponent of payday loans, lists what it considers options to payday loans in its 2008 report, “The Truth About Payday Loans.” They include “borrowing from family and friends,” “using a cash advance from a credit card,” “using overdrafts” and “receiving money from a charity or church.”
However, consumers also pay dearly for cash advances and overdrafts. According to a USA Today analysis last year, bank overdraft fees applied to two weeks of credit are equivalent, on average, to an APR of 696 percent — far higher than the APR for a payday loan.
Spewing nonsense
February 26, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (0)H. Harrison Cochran, the publisher of the Aurora Sentinel in Colorado, says this in a misguided, uninformed column today:
“Why is the payday loan industry growing at such a rapid rate? And why are the most savvy financial minds entering this “loan shark” business segment? The answer, of course, is the TREMENDOUS PROFITS
Where are the tremendous profits? The industry in fact makes very modest profits.
Calling all Colorado payday lenders
February 26, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (0)There’s a forum in Greeley on Saturday. Do you have stores there? Employees? Customers? Get them to the forum to defend the industry.
Would make good movie title
February 25, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (0)The “Passion and the Politics.” The Colorado fight has apparently stirred these emotions.
Editorial support in Colorado!
February 25, 2010 | Colorado, industry, positive media coverage, regulation | Comments (0)“Regulations are tough enough” says the Daily Camera:
In these disastrous economic times, “regulation” and “oversight” have become popular battle cries. But payday lending is highly regulated industry, already — with caps and fee structures that are actually quite stringent when compared with other lenders. The rules on payday lending in Colorado are tough enough.
Driving legitimate businesses, and employers, out of business would also deprive hundreds of thousands of credit-challenged Coloradans emergency funding — to fix their cars, to keep their apartments, to pay an unexpected health bill — at precisely the wrong time.
Need your vote!
February 22, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (3)A Colorado television station is taking a poll on payday lending. Weigh in here.
More on Colorado
February 22, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (0)From the story in the Denver Post:
The legislation would let Colorado voters decide this year whether to cap at 36 percent annual interest rates, which can now climb higher than 300 percent on the small sums.
Opponents predict a complete shuttering of the payday-lending industry in Colorado should the proposal succeed.
Colorado heating up
February 21, 2010 | Colorado, industry | Comments (1)Rate cap bill will be introduced tomorrow:
The bill that Rep. Mark Ferrandino and Sen. Chris Romer are sponsoring would cap payday loan interest rates at 36 percent.”We’re just trying to put them back under the same regulation that every other financial institution has in this state,” said Ferrandino.But the bill was shot down two years ago. Ferrandino said payday lenders argued that a lower interest rate would drive them out of business in Colorado.
Payday lenders told the truth. A 36% rate cap translates to $1.38 per $100 loaned.
