Cash America employee speaks out: Short-term lending fills financial void
March 26, 2009 | Texas, positive media coverage | Comments (0)In his op-ed published today in the San Angelo, Texas newspaper, Dennis Weese writes, “In a perfect world, all Texans could make ends meet. Unfortunately, we can’t.”
Your daily dose of healthy skepticism
May 7, 2008 | Texas, alternatives, industry, states | Comments (0)From a Texas blog:
I have to ask, are the poor going to be offered low rates like the rich? Are they going to be offered overdraft protection? Are they going to be paid interest on their checking accounts? Probably not.
I think it far more likely these accounts will turn out to be like the credit cards offered to the poorer families, that charge higher rates and higher penalties. The banks are just starting to realize what the credit card companies already know — the poor are easy targets for exorbitant profits.
I hope I’m wrong about all this, but I doubt it.
More inaccurate payday lending reporting
May 6, 2008 | Houston Chronicle, Texas, customers, industry, media coverage, states | Comments (0)This time in the Houston Chronicle. Reporter Carolyn Feibel begins her story:
They hide cash in their homes, dodge robbers who lurk about check-cashing stores, and shell out millions in fees to payday lenders and pawnshops. They are the “un-banked” of Houston, and there are tens of thousands of them.
Like many reporters, Ms. Feibel doesn’t understand the distinction between check cashing customers and payday loan customers. ALL PAYDAY LENDING CUSTOMERS ARE BANKED!
Sorry for screaming, but it is unteneble that reporters who are supposed to know the rudimentary facts of the subjects they cover keep making this mistake. It’s not rocket science. Checking cashing is for the unbanked; payday loans are for people who have checking accounts.
Tommy Moore speaks again!
April 23, 2008 | Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, media coverage, positive media coverage, states | Comments (0)In another well put letter to the editor in response to a Star-Telegram guest editorial, Tommy Moore defends the practice of payday lending against those who would “help” consumers by taking away their choices.
As Justice Brandeis said:
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment of men of zeal, well-meaning but without under-standing.
- Justice Louis Brandeis Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928)
Not having a credit record doesn’t mean you’re a bad risk
March 24, 2008 | Texas, customers, industry, research, states | Comments (0)Pamela Yip, columnist at the Dallas Morning News, has an interesting column today about the 40 million Americans who are “underbanked.” Here’s a key passage:
“Some underbanked consumers have bad credit. Others may just have little or no credit history.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a bad risk,” said Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation in Chicago, which studies the underbanked market. “It means we don’t know what risk they are because we don’t have data about them.”
