This will happen in a democracy
December 29, 2009 | federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)Another whiny story about how much the financial sector spend on lobbying. It’s not like it’s a highly regulated, complicated sector that needs to have input into the regulatory process or anything.
How to avoid ATM charges
December 29, 2009 | alternatives, industry | Comments (0)It’s not like ATM charges are killing me, but I found this interesting:
- Make going to the bank part of a weekly routine, pull out a set amount of cash for the week, and stick to spending only that amount, even if by the end of the week, you’re paying for your dry-cleaning in nickels. This method is good for: the routine-oriented, people who can resist the impulse to burn through their cash once it’s in their pocket, people who take a secret delight in producing correct change when they do have to pay for lunch using whatever spare change had migrated to the bottom of their bag.
– Have the tools on hand to find your bank’s ATM wherever you are. MasterCard’s ATM Hunter iPhone app will tell you where any nearby ATM is, so you can use that to hunt for your bank. There’s also a Bank & ATM Finder (free), a $0.99 “Find An ATM” utility and the $0.99 “ATMs“. Download one of these applications and at least you can do due diligence on all your options before blowing $5 in bank fees at a strange ATM. This method is good for: peripatetic wanderers, people who don’t have the space in their brain to remember where their bank’s ATMs are within a 30-mile radius.
“…not a museum, it’s a pawn shop”
December 29, 2009 | Florida, alternatives, industry | Comments (0)From the local Ocala, FL paper:
The recession has hit Marion County’s pawn businesses the same as most other industries. Porter’s profits have been down 15 percent to 20 percent since the recession began.
“People walk up to me all the time and say, ‘You’re in the pawn business, it must be booming,’ ” he said. “I think they don’t understand the pawn business.”
To keep the business afloat, Porter said he must be more selective as to what he buys for resale or what he’ll make loans on.
“Average doesn’t sell that well lately,” he said. Just as some people need money and are more likely to pawn items, potential customers are feeling the financial pinch themselves and are less likely to buy.
FITSnews.com versus Bolton
December 29, 2009 | South Carolina, industry | Comments (0)We love anyone who takes on Warren Bolton, the anti-payday lending jihadist at State Newspaper of South Carolina. From the posting:
Bolton, it seems, has a bit of a liberal ideological “bro-mance” going with Columbia, S.C. mayoral candidate Steve Morrison – something he has been gushing about breathlessly in his columns for months.
Anyway, we noted in our report that Bolton (who is South Carolina’s preeminent anti-payday lending crusader) had yet to mention a certain something about Morrison in any of his fawning columns – namely the fact that Morrison has served as lead counsel for payday lending giant Advance America (which also just so happens to be the company La Socialista hit up in a recent journalistic blackmail scam).
Why does this matter? Well, another Columbia attorney in the mayoral race – Steve Benjamin – also has connections to the payday lending industry, which is something Bolton points out every chance he can get.
Several days after our story ran, reporter Adam Beam over at La Socialista (apparently flooded with phone calls as a result of our post), wrote an article on his Metro Desk blog entitled “Steve Morrison and Payday Lending” which addressed Morrison’s alleged connections to the payday lending industry.
In that story, both Morrison and Advance America flatly denied that Morrison had ever worked for the company.
Specifically, Morrison said that he has “never represented a payday lending company,” according to Beam, while Advance America said that “Morrison does not represent them and never has.”
Pretty cut and dried, right?
Online loans marketed as “green”
December 28, 2009 | alternatives, industry, international | Comments (0)Very clever marking from an online lender in Great Britain:
24/7 Moneybox offer a faster, more convenient, and, very importantly, a much ‘greener’ way of covering short-term expenses. With every aspect of the application carried out securely online and loans paid directly into customers’ bank accounts, typically no paperwork is involved in the payday loan process.
This means that by choosing 24/7 Moneybox customers not only save time and money, they also help to protect the planet by reducing the amount of paper that is consumed.
But storefront lenders create more economic activity by renting storefront space, using vendors, etc. At least that’s would be the Payday Pundit’s spin.
Fact check
December 28, 2009 | alternatives, federal legislation, industry | Comments (0)In this interesting Q&A titled “What’s on Bankers’ Minds?” this caught our attention:
Mroz: My daughter’s husband is in construction. His hours have been cut back and they needed medicine for the baby, so she went to the ATM and overdrew her account. She knew perfectly well what she was doing, but what are the other options?
Brown: She could go to a payday advance.
Mroz: Right, and it would have cost her more.
Payday lending customers frequently choose the service to avoid more expensive overdraft protection.
Celebrating 15 years of business
December 28, 2009 | industry | Comments (0)Congratulations to Check ‘n Go. From the company’s news release:
Check ‘n Go started its business in what is now called a payday loan, Check ‘n Go has expanded its services over the years to include: payday loans, title loans, check cashing, pre-paid debit cards, and the ability to pay loans online.
“I am proud Check ‘n Go has been able to help so many people in different communities throughout the United States, and I am looking forward to serving these communities for many years to come,” said Michael Cammon, Vice President of e-Business for Check ‘n Go.
Now headquartered in Cincinnati, Check ‘n Go more than 1,000 locations in 30 states.
Summing up the year
December 27, 2009 | industry | Comments (0)CFSA Board Chair D. Lynn DeVault spoke to our friends at Cheklist magazine. From the article:
According to D. Lynn DeVault, board chair of the Community Financial Services Association of America, there has been plenty of activity, but in the end, things have been relatively positive.
CFSA is tracking about 178 bills in the states. It opposes 101 of those. “I think we’ve had some fairly good fortune in the states legislatively this year,” DeVault says. “We have a number of bills out there that are still active, but generally speaking things are okay.”
There was the expectation of a big legislative push on the state level after the defeat of referendums in Arizona and Ohio, but nothing materialized.
DeVault believes that action at the grassroots level was the key to the lack of movement in payday loan legislation. Legislators were being informed and educated about the payday product.
She said/she said/she said
December 26, 2009 | Iowa, industry | Comments (0)I don’t think I’ve ever seen a newspaper print a letter to the editor that was in response to a letter to the editor that was in response to a letter to the editor.
The payday lending “public option”
December 26, 2009 | California, alternatives, industry | Comments (0)The more I think about it, the more San Francisco’s payday loan “alternative” seems to be the payday lending version of the “public option” that became so controversial during the health care debate. That’s why a lot of the same kind of groups that supported the health care public option support this plan as well.
