Payback for Payday Lenders

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to create hurdles for lenders of payday and direct deposit advance loans.  Both types of loans are short-term loans intended to help consumers through a rough patch.  Payday loans are available at various storefront locations whereas direct deposit advance loans are for banks’ existing customers.

The problem with these types of loans is that they often trap people into cycles of mounting debt with annual interest rates of more than 500% and the need by some to take out an average of 10 loans a year amounting to a total of more than $3,000.

This is a crackdown on organizations that may be seen to pry on the already weak.  But is it also a setback for financially underprivileged consumers?  After all, if you need money now, you need money now.  I think the new proposed regulations are a step in the right direction as consumer protection, but at the same time, more is needed.  That “more” is a decent living wage so that so many people do not have to live not only paycheck to paycheck, but in fact pre-paycheck to pre-paycheck. 

In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to highlight the nation’s economic growth and falling unemployment rate.  However, as I have written here before, most people in the U.S. still do not see or feel the economic recovery.  Perception is reality.  Let’s hope that the economy soon improves so much that most people feel it.

Hat tip to Professor Miriam Cherry for alerting me to this story.