I found this terrific article by Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on my FB page.
This is an AWESOME IDEA. The infrastructure is already in place. It is accessible even in remote areas. It helps the people who need it most.
If you have never gone into a payday lending store, you should. They are, by law, obligated to display their fees in APR so people know what they are getting into. In Tennessee, people are paying over 400%. In TX, good ol' boy Rick Perry's domain for the moment, the APR is over 1100%. They don't just steal from the poor. They rape, ravage and discard them.
In days gone by, people could take their paychecks to the bank used by the employer. They didn't need a checking account. Then corporations got smart and realized that it they used an out of state bank, it would take time for the checks to clear their accounts -- and they could make money on the float. In the end, all their behaviors are influenced by money, and the easiest way to make money is on the backs of the poor. They have few choices, after all. For them there is little recourse.
Coming to a Post Office Near You: Loans You Can Trust?http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/coming-to-a-post-office-n_b_4709485.html
It opens with this:
"According to a report put out this week by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Postal Service, about 68 million Americans -- more than a quarter of all households -- have no checking or savings account and are underserved by the banking system. Collectively, these households spent about $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees for non-bank financial services like payday loans and check cashing, which works out to an average of $2,412 per household. That means the average underserved household spends roughly 10 percent of its annual income on interest and fees -- about the same amount they spend on food.
"Think about that: about 10 percent of a family's income just to manage getting checks cashed, bills paid, and, sometimes, a short-term loan to tide them over. That's more than a full month's income just to try to navigate the basics.
"The poor pay more, and that's one of the reasons people get trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder."
If you have never gone into a payday lending store, you should. They are, by law, obligated to display their fees in APR so people know what they are getting into. In Tennessee, people are paying over 400%. In TX, good ol' boy Rick Perry's domain for the moment, the APR is over 1100%. They don't just steal from the poor. They rape, ravage and discard them.
In days gone by, people could take their paychecks to the bank used by the employer. They didn't need a checking account. Then corporations got smart and realized that it they used an out of state bank, it would take time for the checks to clear their accounts -- and they could make money on the float. In the end, all their behaviors are influenced by money, and the easiest way to make money is on the backs of the poor. They have few choices, after all. For them there is little recourse.
