Payday Lobby Deceives Voters

The national payday-lending lobby has hit the streets and the airwaves hoping to trick Ohio voters into overturning House Bill 545, a fair and reasonable law that reduces payday lending annual interest rates from 391 to 28 percent. The payday lobby has already spent nearly $1 million collecting signatures to get the issue placed on the November ballot, and will spend an estimated $16 million convincing voters to overturn the law.

The referendum process is meant to give citizens an opportunity to vote on laws with which they may disagree. This is not a citizen-driven referendum, it is a greed-driven referendum sponsored by an out-of-state lender lobby group that has hijacked Ohio's election process for purposes of monetary gain. They seem willing to stop at nothing to be able to continue charging Ohioans 391% interest.

Today it was revealed that the payday lenders have gone to unprecedented levels to deceive Ohio voters: Petition circulators are misleading and lying to voters across the state, leading then to believe that they were signing to lower interest rates on payday loans. Were the referendum to pass, payday lenders would be able to continue business as usual, charging interest as high as 391% APR.

Don't be fooled by petitioners promising lower rates. It's a trap, something payday lenders know a lot about.

Check out our "Dirty Secrets" page, where you can listen to the industry's petition circulators misleading Ohio voters.

Should we trust an industry that doesn't trust voters with the facts?