Columnist Writes about Payday Lenders' Deceptive Campaign
On Sunday, Plain Dealer columnist Thomas Suddes wrote a blistering piece about the payday lenders campaign entitled "Ohio's payday lenders hope dimwits turn out on Election Day." Suddes points out that the payday lenders are trying to overturn one of our nation's best consumer protection bills and head down the 391% interest rate highway by misleading Ohio voters.
Suddes: The lenders, when they could charge 391 percent APRs, had been pleased as punch and obscenely profitable. That's because a 391 percent APR is a permit to pillage working Ohioans. That's also why, on Nov. 4, payday lenders want voters to repeal the new 28 percent APR cap. Their aim is to re-legalize 391 percent, license-to-steal APRs. True, getting Ohioans to do that sounds like getting Gulag prisoners to vote for Stalin. But propaganda and double talk can trump the truth in Ohio campaigns.
A pro-payday-lender publicist told the Columbus Dispatch on Thursday that Ohioans "are enthusiastic about a 'vote no' on Issue 5" - that is, Ohioans want 391 percent APRs charged on payday loans - "because they're tired of government inserting itself where it is not needed."
Apparently their publicist hasn't actually spoken with any of the 300,000 payday borrowers in Ohio who are trapped in debt. Nor has their publicist been paying attention to the recent downward spiral on Wall Street, the blame for which rests at the feet of large unregulated financial institutions who made reckless lending decisions. Suddes reminds us that payday lending was enabled through an exemption from Ohio's usury laws, presumably bought and paid for by the industry's lobby:
Suddes: But in 1995, when their lobby got the General Assembly to allow 391 percent APRs, the lenders didn't mind government "inserting itself." As a matter of fact, government "insertion" made the lenders rich by letting them do what had been flat-out illegal.
If you happen to take a glance at any of the payday lenders' recent television advertisements or their glossy mailers, you'd notice some pretty glaring omissions. The payday lenders fail to mention a) that Issue 5 deals with payday lending b) 300,000 Ohioans are trapped in payday loan debt each year or c) that a ‘no' vote will allow the perpetuation of 391% APR payday loans!
Suddes: So next month, Ohio consumers get the chance for a double play: By voting "yes" on Issue 5, they would keep a 28 percent APR lid clamped on payday loans. Also by voting "yes," Ohioans would shout out, loud and clear, what they think about financial gougers - on Main Street and Wall Street.
To read more of the Plain Dealer column, please click here: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/thomas_suddes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/122310916155541.xml&coll=2&thispage=2
Vote yes on issue 5 to reform the payday lending industry!
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