Payday Pundit

With all of the talk of fee and market transparency in the credit markets…Payday Pundit wants to remind everyone of the steps the payday lending industry has proactively taken to address the concern over hidden fees and fine print.

[Read more →]

Last night on PBS, Frontline re-ran a program called: Secret History of the Credit Card. The show highlighted some facts about credit cards that make the criticisms about payday lending look like child’s play. 
What Payday Pundit found particularly interesting is that by paying only the minimum balance every month, it could take you 35 years […]

[Read more →]

Interesting post from Steele Street Blog, The Assault on Market Transparency:
“When a free market works it is a beautiful think. Adam Smith’s invisible hand graces many a bargain from flat screen TV’s to fast food. Supply and demand work as opposing forces in a tug of war as the market sets the price of goods and […]

[Read more →]

Global Compliance, an independent auditing company, found that 99 percent of CFSA-member companies were incompliance with the new Best Practices announced last February.    In fact, as this news release indiciates,  only five of the surveyed stores were not in compliance and among this stores, the infractions were minor. 

[Read more →]

D. Lynn DeVault of Check into Cash, one of the country’s premier payday lenders, was elected President of the Community Financial Services Association of America  (CFSA) at the group’s annual meeting which concluded this weekend.   Ms. DeVault takes over from Darrin Andersen of QC Holdings who held the post for two years.  Mr. Andersen led the […]

[Read more →]

The Motley Fool picks up on the GAO report finding that, in 2006, consumers paid $36 billion in bank fees.  The Fool is highly critical of the government but also critical of consumers who don’t understand how much they’re paying in fees.  
How does this relate to payday lending?  Storefront payday lenders collected $6.5 billion in fees in 2006.  And payday lending […]

[Read more →]

David K. Musto, Philip Bond and Bilge Yilmaz, finance professors at Wharton, have authored a new paper, “Predatory Lending in a Rational World,” asking the questions, “What is predatory lending? And what are the conditions that make it flourish?”
They found three market conditions associated with predatory lending:
 
1. There is little competition among lenders
2. Property […]

[Read more →]

A new GAO report coming out on Monday details rising bank fees and lack of transparency in fee disclosure.  The report says overdraft protection fees increased 11% between 2000-2007.    Excepts from Sunday’s Washington Post story on the report:
“Banks are failing to provide consumers with information about fees on savings and checking accounts even though federal rules require such disclosures.”
“The GAO […]

[Read more →]