The payday lending industry targets Evangelicals more than any US demographic. That’s the finding of a soon-to-be published study by the Catholic University Law Review called Usury Law and The Christian Right. A payday advance is a short-term loan of usually just a couple of hundred dollars that covers a borrower's expenses to get them through to the next paycheck. The catch is that the borrower often pays an outrageous interest rate. When spread out over a year, rates can range from 156% in Oregon to a whopping 869% in Maine and Montana, according to the Community Financial Services Association of America. The group denies targeting conservative religious homes and says the study was poorly set up. But the study found lending highest in the Bible Belt, followed by area of the West where many Mormons live.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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The payday lending does not target any particular group. Someone puts up a store, and if it is successful, other stores pop up. Studies have been done to prove that the payday loans help people by reducing high cost bounced check and overdraft fees. The people leading the crusade to put payday stores out of business are banks and credit unions because they make a lot of their profits from these fees. We need to leave the payday loan stores alone and focus on things that actually matter, NO not gay marriage! How about education. If you focus your efforts on education, we can educate people on how to use payday loans responsibly. I use payday loans, and I am out of debt and my credit score is rising for the first time in years because of them. They help, leave them alone!
Taking out a payday advance is a personal choice. It's silly that religion is even part of the conversation regarding this industry. I pass more churches on my way to work than I do payday stores, I can't think you'd say that I was being targeting by Christians.
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