Monday, January 31, 2011

Short email to my legislators re: the usury bills. People, please speak up.

"It is my hope that you will support efforts like HB 1223 & HB 1224 to curb the excesses of payday and title lenders. These loans are simply not good financial practice any more than smoking is good for the health. The state has curbed smoking venues - it is my hope that we can curb lending practices that keep people in debt."

Please contact your legislators. The State Legislature site is quite friendly for this. It is very important that people speak up. Usurious lenders are organized and they depend upon borrowers' two part shame:

1) the stigma of having been in debt in the first place;

2) the stigma of having entered into the really stupid deal these payday and title lenders offer.

So please, get over your shame. They advertised as nice people who would help you out of a bad spot. Yeah, you got suckered. We all do from time to time, in different ways.

But why consider yourself worse than someone who would charge a neighbor 500% interest on a loan and roll it over more than once to bury him even deeper in the debt? What kind of neighbor takes the title to your clunker and then keeps it, giving you the choice between keeping the heat on in January or getting to work in February?

Please speak up - many legislators will blow these issues off if you don't.

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