South Carolina payday loan bill “balanced”
Harry Cato, the speaker pro tem of South Carolina’s House of Representatives, recently contributed an opinion piece to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in which he agrees with the payday loan reform bill that has found heavy support in the General Assembly. He respects the value of the payday loan in society – helping people to “cope with personal financial difficulties” – but also wants to ensure that sufficient consumer protections are in place. Click here for more information on the specifics of the bill currently under consideration.
Essentially, the keys to the legislation would place a limit on how many cash advance loans a consumer can have at one time and ensure that an installment plan is available for those who have difficulty repaying on time. The former restriction would be enforced by a real-time independent database similar to those currently in place in Florida, Oklahoma, Illinois, Colorado and Michigan. Cato considers these measures, as well as others provided in the bill, to be “balanced.”
Need a payday loan, South Carolina?
Cato expects that talk of banning payday loans in South Carolina won’t go away, but he also expects that level heads will prevail. Thousands of South Carolinian’s (including Cato’s constituents) have a legitimate need for the product. Thus, any reform should ensure that accessibility and availability of the product are untouched. As he puts it, “reforming payday loans instead of banning them will ensure that South Carolina is protecting its citizens with additional regulations and consumer protections while still allowing access to needed short-term credit.”
No matter where you live in America, the right to a payday loan should be preserved. Government should be allowed to place reasonable safeguards that protect consumers in borrowing situations, but they should not be allowed to attempt to regulate behavior and responsibility. It is essential that citizens retain their conscious right to choose what they will do with their money and when they use products like the payday loan during emergency cash situations.
Well, at least we got another legislator that doesn’t want to ban a business, with a legitimate demand for it amongst contributing members of society, and wants to be able to make both sides happy. That’s what politics are supposed to be all about – accommodating all interested parties.