Payday loans in Ohio still exist, but the opposition continues to bulk up for the next battle. (Photo: Wikipedia.org)

The battle for payday loans in Ohio has been a difficult one for consumers. The recession hit the Ohio workforce harder than most, and the need for emergency short term loans is greater than ever before. Yet the state legislature in their infinite wisdom decided that what their constituents needed was nanny state regulation. Rates were capped at 28 percent APR, which effectively crippled the industry in Ohio and sent credit- and liquid asset-constrained consumers scrambling toward more expensive options. That rate is more stringent that the federal rate of 36 percent APR set for lending to active military, and we know that even at that level, the business model in unsustainable.

Payday Lending is Now

Consumers desire the flexibility to choose what is best for their financial situation. The Columbus Dispatch, rather than turning away from this point in order to blow with the political wind, recently produced an article that was pleasantly even-handed. For some, it’s true: payday loans are “the only way to get by.” While no reputable lender would advocate payday loan dependency, it’s been proven not only in customer surveys but in studies conducted by the Federal Reserve and institutions of higher learning that payday loan can be an invaluable tool for smoothing out financial shocks.

Choice is Good

CheckSmart CEO Ted Saunders pointed out to the Dispatch that “There is a bank right there,” in reference to a traditional institution just a football field away from one of his stores. “They could go right there if they wanted to.”

Competition fosters choice. It also tends to help regulate prices, both of which are benefits to the consumer. But activists like Bill Faith of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COOHIO), who appears to be a firm believer in the nanny state, reminds that “People at one point also were excited about high-interest subprime mortgage loans that helped ruin the housing market.” Yet Faith makes an apples-to-oranges comparison. Wall Street shenanigans and impotent governmental policy that allowed it to go on are what destroyed the economy. Payday loans aren’t even in the same ballpark. In fact, studies like those by Dartmouth College’s Jonathan Zinman suggest that capping payday loan rates and otherwise restricting the industry harms consumers’ financial welfare.

Don’t Believe? Ask Somebody Who Has Used Payday Loans

The Dispatch interviewed Amie, a 47-year-old mother of six. Recessionary times have been tough for her budget, and her low earnings make getting ahead almost impossible. Even though she’s found herself jumping from one payday loan to another, she said “I can’t complain. At least they’re helping me,” referring to CheckSmart in Ohio.

That’s ammunition that payday loan critics would use to say that companies like CheckSmart are pulling Amie into an endless cycle of debt. But what we truly have here is a financial landscape where banks, credit unions and even employers have for the most part failed to serve the populace. Requirements to apply for consumer loans through old-school channels often exclude those who need the most help. As wages have not kept pace with the rise of inflation, too many consumers like Amie find themselves in a large hole.

Legislation: Like an Ant Lion’s Hole

Legislators who fight for 28 percent APR and other such unreasonable restrictions upon businesses without the deep pockets of the financial mainstream are creating a nanny state scenario where consumers with nowhere else to turn will have to depend upon the “alms” of the government and their banking tentacles. Freedom of choice sinks beneath the waves. Or, if the government does not assert total control and credit-restricted consumers are left to fend for themselves, regulating payday loan companies out of the market most frequently leaves consumers with even more expensive options, from loan sharks to overdraft fees. At least payday lenders make their costs clear up front. That’s something a bank never does with overdraft fees. If you’re skirting the red, using an ATM card becomes a deadly game, as every infraction can incur a fee of $25 or more, even if you overdraw your account by as little as one penny. But that’s OK, says banks. It’s all in the micro-fine print!

“Banks and other lending institutions aren’t doing their jobs,” says Koziura

That’s what House Financial Institutions Committee chair Rep. Joseph F. Koziura of Lorain, Ohio told the Dispatch. “The system is built on making money on fees now instead of the old-fashioned loaning money and putting money in the system. That’s 90 percent of the reason we’re screwed up.”

What happened when half of Ohio’s 1,600 payday lending outlets closed down after approval of a 28 percent APR rate cap? Lots of people hopped into the unemployment line, for one. Consumers kowtowed to the voice of government and made life more difficult for those who can ill afford such windmill chasing. There were certainly some payday lenders who were unscrupulous in their dealings with customers, but it was not a majority. Payday lending is a regulated industry with a keen eye toward consumer relations. Groups like the Community Financial Services Association and the Online Lenders Alliance are there to ensure that consumers can safely enjoy the use of payday loans.

But Payday Lenders Aren’t Being Allowed to Run Legitimate Business

Charging $15 per $100 loaned is common for a payday loan. For a two-week loan, paying 15 percent interest is reasonable for an emergency service that can expose the lender to a great deal of financial risk. But Ohio legislators managed to convince consumers (lead the lemmings?) into laws that prevent payday lenders from even doing that. According to the Dispatch, CheckSmart charges up to that rate, but it’s broken down into numerous fees in order to circumvent faulty legislation. It gets around the 28 percent APR rate cap as it currently exists. And CheckSmart makes each of the individual fees clear to its customers, who continue to use their services. The truth is what consumers want, not horror stories that leave you thinking, “Yeah, that really doesn’t happen to most people.” No hook hands scraping the door at midnight, no dolls that move on their own and no payday loan debt traps… that’s story time, kids.

Legislators Still Aren’t Satisfied

Ohio legislators are continuing to drive for a 28 percent APR rate cap that applies to any payday loan and closes the loopholes. “The latest bill up for debate in a House committee,” writes the Dispatch, “would cap interest at 28 percent for all loans of up to $1,000 made for a term of three months or less.” That would kill payday lending in Ohio. A vote is set for early December.

Payday Lending: A Tool to Be Used with Healthy Caution

Payday lending is not a magic ATM. It isn’t money to fulfill your wildest cash desires at a moment’s notice. Such unbridled use can easily lead to dependency, when what a consumer’s finances need is sound budgeting. But regulating payday lending out of business in Ohio because a minority of consumers use the payday loan product in ways it was not intended to be used is no answer. If people fear the nanny state when it comes to bailouts and healthcare, shouldn’t they also fear it in this avenue of consumer finance?

Speaking of government, there’s an invention called Social Security. While it has been a cash lifeline for some, many others worry that it may be a financial scam, a Ponzi scheme that is costing the modern workforce millions each year. Yet legislators make no earnest attempt to reform that system. They consider payday loans a more desirable target, perhaps? There might just be more of a campaign war chest in that field, thanks to the banking industry. Vote as the dollars go; isn’t that the way?

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Image from Flikr.

A word to the wise, people: If you’re ever out shopping and someone marches into the store and says she’ll pay for $500 worth of merchandise for everyone, remember that sometimes people lie. Furthermore, if this happens to you, please exercise further common sense by realizing that if a stranger walks in and offers to buy clothing for you and then doesn’t follow through, you are not allowed to steal it.

A Burlington Coat Factory riot broke out on Tuesday when a woman emerged from a limousine at the store and told cashiers she had won the lottery and would spend up to $500 on everybody in the store. Guaranteed loans may be guaranteed, but promises from strangers have no such legal backing. I’m not sure who I think is crazier in this story: the woman who lied about winning the lottery and being able to buy stuff for everyone, or the people who caused a riot and started looting the store after they realized the stranger wouldn’t be funding their purchases.

Details on Burlington Coat Factory riot

It all started at a Burlington Coat Factory location in Columbus, OH. Though the fact that I first read about this in the Weekly World News made me wonder which was the real hoax, the story is confirmed in the Chicago Tribune and on MSNBC. As they tell it, a woman named Linda Brown rolled up to the store in a rented limousine Tuesday and “walked to a cash register and loudly announced she had won the lottery and would pay for each person’s merchandise up to $500,” police said.

She told people she had won $1.5 million. Customers started calling relatives and friends, and soon the store had to call in police officers to handle the crowd. Brown went to the bank to get the money to pay for everything, then came back empty handed. She hadn’t won anything and had no money.

And the crowd goes wild

Once customers found out they weren’t getting free stuff, the Burlington Coat Factory riot broke out as “Angry customers threw merchandise around and looted, leaving the store looking as though a hurricane had passed through it, police said,” according to MSNBC. Some customers took off with their merchandise without paying for it, and police are reviewing surveillance footage to find those people.

Announcing to a store that you will buy things for everyone and then not doing it isn’t a crime. However, receiving $900 worth of limousine services and not paying for it is. When the limo driver realized he wasn’t going to get paid, he turned Brown into the police.

Quite the rap sheet

Turns out, the woman who caused the Burlington Coat Factory riot has three outstanding warrants for aggravated menacing, misuse of 911 systems and causing false alarms. Interesting hobby.

Last year, the Ohio payday lending industry and its advocates fought to get harsh restrictions in the state overturned, but the policies stayed put.

This year, more than a third of the payday loan businesses in the state have closed down, much to the dismay of their former customers.

Regulated out of business

Ohio law places a cap on fees that payday lenders can charge, and it limits residents to four per year. Businesses warned that these laws would shut them down, and now that has become a reality.

Chron.com says:

There were about 1,600 retail locations across Ohio when the new interest rules went into effect last year, state officials said. About 960 remain, and those are under fire from critics who want to enact even tougher rules beyond the 28 percent cap on interest.

Struggling to survive

Payday lending in Ohio used to bring in a decent amount of business in Ohio. At least that’s what this guy said:

“The change has been a tremendous blow to the company,” said Ted Saunders, chief executive of Columbus-based CheckSmart. “I’ve closed 10 or 15 stores, and I’ve got more on the watch list. We were on a growth spurt until this happened.”

Words from payday loan users

Payday loan company owners aren’t the only people who object to the harsh restrictions and subsequent shutdowns. Some payday loan customers talked to Chron.com:

Some customers still say that payday loans are best for their needs.

“Are you going to loan me $200 for two weeks for $30? I don’t think so,” said Linda Coleman, 28, a machine operator and nursing student from suburban Colerain Township.

She was at a CheckSmart store in suburban Kenwood borrowing money to cover her quarterly water bill, and said she uses short-term loans about once a month.

Johney Easterling, 47, a maintenance worker from suburban Deer Park, said he borrows money about five times a year and doesn’t object to the fees.

“I think it’s a pretty good service when you need a little change, you can get it,” he said. “If you can afford it, do it.”

Regulations pass in South Carolina

After a four-month impasse, new payday loan regulations have passed in South Carolina. S.C. Politics says:

The compromise raises the maximum payday loan amount to $550 from $350, and limits outstanding loans to one at a time by way of a database that will track borrowers.

Borrowers would have to wait one day between loans, and after consecutive loans a two-day cooling off period would be in effect.

Other provisions of the compromise are that borrowers would have a 24-hour to change their mind on taking out a loan, meaning they could cancel the transaction within 24 hours if they chose.

If borrowers get trapped in a loan they cannot repay, they could enter an extended payment plan, once per year, which would allow their loan repayment to be broken into four equal payment dates.

It’s tough to say how these changes will affect the industry. Allowing payday lenders to give bigger loans will definitely be helpful to customers, and limiting customers to one payday loan at a time is a good practice because it helps keep consumers out of trouble.

Overall, the changes in South Carolina will likely have positive effects.

Indianapolis has the most affordable houses in the United States.

According to an organization’s calculations, home buyers in Indianapolis won’t need payday loans to keep up with their mortgages.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index says Indianapolis, Ind., is the most affordable city in the United States as far as home buying goes.

Formula

The NAHB calculates how affordable a house is based on the national median income, which is $61,500 a year. If a home’s monthly mortgage payments equal less than 28 percent of this total, the house is considered affordable.

Overall affordability

As home prices have plummeted, more houses considered “affordable” are selling. Nationally, more than 60 percent of the homes sold in the last three months of 2008 fit the NAHB’s affordability standard.

This is a good sign that people are starting to live within their means and steer away from payday loans and other forms of credit.

Best of the best

Indianapolis topped the list of most affordable cities because a whopping 93 percent of the homes sold during fourth quarter 2008 were considered affordable. This city has long topped the list; this marks its 14th consecutive quarter in the top spot. The average home price in Indianapolis during that quarter was $103,000.

The list only examines metropolitan cities that have a population higher than 500,000.

Next up

Coming in a pretty close second, almost 90 percent of homes in Warren, Mich., sold at affordable rates during the last three months of 2008. The median home price there was $125,000.

Worst of the worst

On the top of the list of least affordable places: New York City. During the same quarter, only 13 percent of the homes sold in New York City were considered affordable.

Next on the list? San Francisco, where only 20 percent of homes were sold at an affordable price. Even though home prices are the lowest they’ve been in decades, some places are still just expensive places to live.

More contenders

So, if you are looking to buy a house or move to another city, here is another place you might want to consider: Ohio. With four cities on the top 10 list, Ohio claims more spots on the list than any other state.

Indiana, Ohio and Michigan — in general, if you want to assure that you won’t need payday loans to keep up with your mortgage, that area of the country is a good bet.

Wallet, meet overdraft fees

Payday loans in Ohio have weathered the storm of House Bill 545. This we know.  But let’s take a closer look at what opponents of payday loans are concerned about. An editorial by Marc Kovac of Dix Communications, a media conglomerate that no doubt has interest in the banking industry, should shed some light on the matter.

Governor Strickland has voiced concern that if lenders are using Ohio’s Small Loan Act to lend at the same rates as before, they may be violating the new law of House Bill 545. So what he’s saying is that the pay day loan companies left in Ohio may be breaking the law by following the law. Not only is that not the problem of the lenders, but it should be noted that lenders are working within applicable laws. They are cooperating with state government.

Payday lenders cooperate, adapt

Payday loans have adapted to existing laws. When House Bill 545 placed an oppressive 28 percent annual interest cap on short-term consumer loans, stores closed and hard-working individuals lost their jobs. None of this was necessary. Those against HB 545 predicted that the bill would put 6,000 Ohioans out of work. Much of that fear was recognized once the bill passed. Over 500 stores closed, according to Ohio Department of Commerce Legislative Director Ernie Davis.

According to Kovac, State Attorney General Richard Cordray identified the usage of the Small Loans Act as a “loophole.” Here’s how he put it:

… I believe that none of you realized that the language you drafted in the legislation left a loophole in Ohio law … to continue gouging consumers through exorbitant fees… some lenders are still charging fees and interest on small loans that may add up to an annual percentage rate of in excess of 300 percent. This is substantially equivalent to the fees charged by payday lenders under their previous business model.

Banks want overdraft fees, not payday loans

It is equivalent, yes. Of course, the 300-plus percent APR is irrelevant. It amounts to political chicanery on Cordray’s part, as payday loans are two-week loans that charge 15 to 25 percent of principal as the loan fee. Now, under the Small Loan Act, opponents are also crying about the check-cashing fee lenders in the state are charging if customers want to cash their checks there. Yet this still falls under the “equivalent fees” Cordray is braying about.

If Dix Communication indeed shares the same interest banks have in attempting to ban payday loans, what would that rather large interest be? Without a doubt, banks want customers to rely upon their equivalent product, overdraft protection. It is MUCH more expensive than using payday loans for emergency cash. Banks want your money however they can get it. Why not use a less expensive product when you’re in a jam. Use payday loans.

Jim Siegel of The Columbus Dispatch reports that the Ohio Department of Commerce will not regulate payday loans into oblivion. Great, but they’re on the verge of being taken away from the public as is, thanks to House Bill 545. It capped annual interest rates at 28 percent for the high risk, unsecured loans, which is not a workable profit model. It isn’t oblivion, but it’s close.

In order to save scores of employees from unemployment and keep options open for consumers who need emergency cash but have less than perfect credit, lenders who remain in Ohio are offering pay day loans under the state’s Small Loan Act. Ernie Davis, the commerce department’s legislative director admits that lenders ”are operating under licenses set in statute.” Yet meddling politicians – driven as if their masters’ whips are at their backs – are going to look again and again to make sure lenders are “abiding by terms set in the new law.”

What’s their main problem?

Some are claiming that the process payday lenders are using under the Small Loans Act – issuing a check payment, then charging a fee if the customer wants to cash the check there – is exploitative. This, of course, is ridiculous. They can cash elsewhere, such as at their bank (they can’t take out payday loans if they don’t have bank accounts). Furthermore, check cashing businesses charge a small fee to cash checks. Why should a payday lender do it for free?

Gov. Ted Strickland says that he’ll be willing to review the situation if the law is being violated, but otherwise, pointless legislative battles that waste the taxpayers’ money must not occur. Furthermore, the payday loans industry should not be squeezed any more than it already has. John Rabenold, VP of governmental affairs for Cincinnati-based Axcess Financial (parent company of Check ‘n Go) said that half of their 72 Ohio stores are no longer in operation, and “the rest are struggling.” Rabenold would welcome a return to the debate over House Bill 545, but only so long as politicians wake up and see that capping payday loans hurts consumers.

It’s interesting that 12 people took the time to vent their “moral outrage” over changes in the Ohio payday loans industry. Interesting, in that it wasn’t until the 13th person commented on Sheryl Harris’ Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial that they noticed something wacky.

Here it is. The numbers have been left the same to preserve the editorial integrity of the source material:

So when payday lending was legal last year, CheckSmart customers paid $575 to walk out the door with $500 in cash.

Under the new licensing scheme, CheckSmart customers pay $575 to walk out the door with $500 in cash.

Shocker!

Sure, it must be a typo, but let’s move on.

If you didn’t already know, payday loans have been banned in Ohio. This ban came not only during a recession, but during a time when Ohio’s state of budget affairs was among the worst in the nation. Unemployment is high; kicking out legitimate businesses is a bad idea.

Harris draws our attention to House Bill 545, which she says was “supposed to help consumers by creating a Short-Term Loan Act that gave borrowers at least a month to pay off loans. More importantly, the new law was supposed to drive down the costs.” The crux of the argument Harris and people like her use against the payday loan industry is that the APR for a loan would be a “jaw-dropping” 391 percent.

But that’s not what’s really jaw-dropping!

What’s truly jaw dropping is that we’re expected to eat and like the spoon-fed rhetoric that payday loans are annual loans! Right-thinking people must stand up for the intellectual honest and stamp out these deceptively mild distortions of the truth. Sure, if a payday loan could be extrapolated out over an entire year, 391 percent in annual interest is possible. However, since they are two-week loans that charge $15 in many locations, You’re looking at 15 percent paid in interest, on top of the principal. For a short-term loan that is often given to clients with less than perfect credit, that is both a bargain and a price point that helps shelter lenders from risk.

What does Harris coo about, in honor of the misguided law? She yearns for a 28 percent APR, which would even one-up the supposed cap President Obama wants to put on payday loans at 36 percent APR. With Obama’s APR, the lender profits to the tune of $4.14 for a $300 loan made to a consumer. How is that anything other than insanity for a business? Furthermore, what kind of insanity afflicts people who think that today there are religious reasons for not charging interests on loans (they essentially coined the term “usury” and gave it boogieman status… similar to what was done to hide the original meaning of the word pagan… now it’s considered evil in the public eye, goat horns and all… it originally meant “country dweller” or “rustic”).

Facts are simple here. Payday loans help all sorts of consumers, particularly those who need emergency cash that can’t wait until their next payday. Few banks or credit unions offer micro loans, particularly for customers with less than perfect credit. Thus, the loans fill a need in society.

Ohio state flag

When Ohio lawmakers capped interest rates on payday advance loans, they knew that payday lenders wouldn’t be able to stay in business if they operated under that stipulation.

The new law capped interest rates on payday loans at 28 percent. But trying to drive payday lenders out of business didn’t eliminate the need for small, short-term loans.

Payday lenders find alternatives

Ohio lawmakers accused payday lenders of being “predatory” and tried to get rid of the practice in the state. But consumers didn’t buy it. Borrowers still needed the service.

Because payday advance loans lenders were still getting customers, they saw that their services were still needed. Instead of closing up shop and leaving their customers with nowhere to go, they figured out a way to maintain their businesses. Because they couldn’t charge higher interest rates, they increased fees so they could stay open.

Complainers

Instead of recognizing that people in Ohio want and need this service, activists are again accusing lenders of using a “loophole” in the law. Some lawmakers are starting to consider how they can regulate payday advance loans even further.

The irony is, they will be hurting the people they say they want to protect. The interest rate cap was placed “to protect consumers,” lawmakers say. But if payday loans are driven out of the state, consumers will have fewer financial choices.

Friends in need

Consumers choose to use payday loans because they need them. Borrowers know the terms of the loans beforehand, and they choose to exercise their options. Ohio lawmakers won’t be doing consumers any favors if they regulate payday advance loans out of the state.

This concludes my look at the anti-payday loan debacle in Ohio. Parts one, two and three will set the stage.

Some stores will find a different kind of consumer loan product that serves consumers and circumvents ill-conceived laws written by ill-conceived servants of no public but themselves. What I mean here is that they take the money from banks and credit unions that campaign against no fax payday loans. Since those incumbent organizations are well established and monolithic compared to the bulk of payday loan companies, they have the cash and lawyers to burn.

Thankfully for misguided people everywhere across the great state of Ohio, Mr. O’Bryan says he’ll keep an eye on the new products the survivors of their little war create for the people. He’ll be waiting to cry wolf and chop them off at the stalk. He’ll be waiting to “serve” the public of me, myself and I. Watch out, Mr. Payday Loan; watch out, consumers with less than perfect credit. People like Mr. O’Bryan are waiting for you on the threshing room floor. Think for yourselves; take matters into your own hands or more and more decisions will be taken from you. Banks will profit from your loss.

Show me the research, because your numbers on the payday loan are officially ignorant. While you’re looking for those numbers that may or may not exist, I’ll direct readers to parts one and two of this article on Ohio and loss of financial sanity.

Pat O’Bryan, who is the director of the Catholic Commission of Wayne, Ashland and Medina counties, wants to sound authoritative. He really does. Through the huffing and puffing, he wants us to truly believe that 97 percent of Ohioans who used payday loans couldn’t make the first payment. He would have us believe that the thoroughly defeated, downtrodden then went to a different company to pay off the first loan.

Wait, back up. Ninety-seven percent?!

Somebody is mistaken, looking through rose-colored glasses, or both. Faxless payday loans are a legitimate business that is required to make all fees and terms known up front before a customer signs a contract. If 90 percent of customers pay on time, it would be easily verifiable. If asked, Check Into Cash could provide access to pertinent data. Where’s O’Bryan’s info coming from?

The biggest problem with O’Bryan’s position is made clear when he says that he “feels bad that people have lost their jobs. ” He wonders how “you keep an unjust situation going to justify jobs and keep (in)justice going?” I would first answer this by saying that no fax payday loans are a legitimate business. Second, I’d drive home the point that keeping people in their legitimate jobs rather than kicking them to the curb during a deep recession is essential; playing out your pointless moral/logical fallacy argument is destructive. Or, in parlance people like O’Bryan can understand… the payday loan would be a sin. Ridiculous, yes? Read on, there’s MORE IN PART FOUR.

Who would have thought that a state whose legislature and media have been so blatantly against the payday loan industry in recent months would allow a reporter to pierce the veil of insanity with a bit of truth telling? That’s exactly what Adam Burroughs of Wooster, Ohio’s The Daily Record accomplishes in a recently published article. Not only does he allow the critics to voice their concerns, but he gives customers and employees of the industry ample opportunity to show why banning the loans has delivered the floundering state an ill-timed death blow.

Here are the facts. Since legislation passed in Ohio that capped payday loan interest rates at 28 percent annually, numerous faxless payday loan stores have closed and many more employees have been laid off. How many, to be exact? Reports vary, but spokeswoman Lisa Ferguson of Check Into Cash claims that 32 of their stores closed in Ohio – about one third of the company’s total stores. Jennifer Kindel, the market manager for Cashland stores in Northeast Ohio, say they closed 40 locations.

What about the layoffs?

Here’s where the numbers truly get ugly. It’s easy to demonize a business, an organization, a government, etc. It doesn’t have a human face. However, when business is shut down, humans suffer through the loss of jobs. In America’s current economy, finding a replacement job is difficult. They certainly don’t grow on trees. Yet misinformed voters led by misinformed politicians who blindly accept money from organizations like the Center For Responsible Lending and similar “consumer advocate” groups voted 2-to-1 to cap the payday loan rate at an untenable 28 percent annually. The people suffer; click HERE to see how in part two of this article!

Haven’t you noticed that when it comes to money everybody wants their hands in your pockets. Every service comes with a fee and don’t forget a tax as well.

Taxes today consume about 43% of the average American’s paycheck. We are taxed upon making the money, and on everything we buy, or consume afterward such as groceries and gas.

When is enough, enough?

What’s even worse however is that once our heavily taxed and hard-earned American dollars finally pay off our personal assets, our beneficiaries get taxed on what is willed to them at our death. After a set amount of about $10,000 a year, you can’t gift anything more without the receiving party being taxed on the gift you have given.

Oh, and did I tell you there is a death tax as well. Yes it’s true. The IRS doesn’t stop with the just taxing the living. They get you when your dead, too. I will spare you the story however, and let you die in peace.

Can You Make Your Own Financial Decisions?

The point I am trying to make is that if it involves money it almost always involves the government who tells us what we can and cannot do with the money we have already been taxed on.

Shouldn’t we have the right to make our own decisions with our own money? After all, we have already paid our dues. Is it right that giving the money away should cost us more?

You see a lot of this frustration in the economy today. As of lately, the bailout bill has caused the greatest outcry as the federal government has stuck the US taxpayer with over $700 billion dollars of debt, the price to bail out the nation’s biggest banks who helped create the crisis in the first place.

The Last Frontier

There is a last frontier of financial freedom, that although not left untouched by government legislation, still operates quite freely. This industry is the payday loans industry.

There are not many places that you can go today and get quick cash without a drawn-out loan process that you expect to see in places like the bank. Payday loans can be applied for in person or online, approval takes just minutes and deposits are made in as little as two hours.

The costs associated with payday loans are minimal, usually between $15 and $25 dollars per $100 borrowed. This may seem high for some but you have to take into consideration the risk that the company is taking in consumers to provide by providing them funds almost instantly and often time without a credit check.

This is a service that will serve you well in times where you need payday loans. Good examples of these times would be like when you have fallen short on your mortgage or car payment. Avoiding the late penalties by using a payday loan can save you quite a large sum depending on how much you have fallen short and therefore how much you need to borrow.

Many states are losing this privilege as the government and big bank lobbyists who want the consumers to come to them first wrestle the payday loan industry to shut them down or lower the interest rates to a point that they cannot stay in operation. You may recall Ohio passed legislation that capped interest rates to such a low APR that for every hundred dollars loaned, only about a $1.08 could be made, and 79 of these payday loan stores had to close doors.

Know that amidst all the decisions that are be taken away in the financial arena, you still have a place to go that understands your needs and we aim to provide for you anyway that we can.

-Personal Money Store

Your Online Source for Payday Loans

That amounts to a profit of $1.08 for every $100 loaned

Does it seem to you that payday loans establishments will be able to pay their leases, staff or tiny fragments of their electric bills with that small amount of profit from their services? It’ll never happen.

Yet Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland signed House Bill 545 on June 2, 2008

This established strict regulations for payday loans businesses in Ohio. In addition to capping the annual interest rate at 28 percent, the bill set a $500 borrowing limit for consumers and restricted borrowers to four loans per year. It also extended loan terms to 31 days from 14 days.

HB 545 went to a citizens’ vote. It was approved during the November 4 election, and will go into effect by the end of November. Strickland had this to say about the legislation:

The bipartisan legislation takes a major step toward protecting Ohio consumers who are already struggling with debt by strictly regulating payday lenders and lowering the maximum interest rate for short-term loans.

Yet it’s OK that

Apparently, select Ohio banks and credit unions have been offering these loans under other state lending statutes that allow them to charge interest and fees that add up to triple-digit annual interest rates.

Here again, the concept of an annual percentage rate shouldn’t apply. Now under HB 545, we’re talking about 31-day loans, not annual loans. This applies to payday loans from a traditional short-term consumer lending organization, a bank or a credit union.

If banks and credit unions can do it, so should the smaller lenders

Are they afraid of competition? Perhaps they are. But the banks also know that offering unsecured short-term loans at 28 percent APR isn’t a sustainable model. It will lead their clientele swiftly into the arms of overdraft protection when emergency expenses pop up. As has been documented in places like this and many others, overdraft protection is a much more expensive proposition.

In the meantime…

While the banks are sopping the biscuit, many short-term lenders have begun closing their stores and leaving Ohio. Some are seeking licenses under the Ohio Small Loan Act (see http://www.ece.umd.edu/MEMS/projects/fib-pdf/pdf/doc/ohio-state-legistration-voting-on-pay-day-loans.html) and the Ohio Mortgage Loan Act (see http://www.com.state.oh.us/dfi/pub/03-06%20CF%20Apps/SL/Small%20Loan%20Codebook%205-6-05_retitled_.pdf) that allows them to charge APRs that can reach 223 percent on a two-week $200 loan. That proves to be sufficiently profitable for the lender and easier to pay off for customers.

Because those acts are on the books in Ohio, it is unlikely banks will offer short-term consumer loans at interest rates close to what consumer advocates had envisioned when HB 545 was proposed, said Marc Kilmer, a policy analyst at the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. They are critical of the bill.

Also in the meantime, Gov. Strickland says no to short-term consumer lending, but apparently has little problem with his employees who engage in pedophilia:

Payday loans are in demand and beneficial

In the study “An Experimental Analysis of the Demand for Payday Loans” by collegiate professors and researchers Bart J. Wilson, David W. Findlay, James W. Meehan, Jr., Charissa P. Wellford, and Karl Schurter, the researchers conducted a laboratory experiment to examine the extent to which the existence and use of payday loans affects individuals’ welfare in an economic environment in which individuals with limited income and financial resources encounter uncertain expenditures. (p. 14)

After analyzing the pros and cons of research that has been compiled over the past 10 years regarding payday loans, they conclude on p. 33 as follows:

We found that the majority of subjects in our experiment benefited from the existence of and their subsequent use of payday loans.

Further studies like those by Dartmouth economics professor Johnathan Zinman suggest that the absence of payday loans companies from Oregon has a negative correlation with the overall financial health of citizens. Studies regarding this useful short-term consumer loan product are appearing more frequently as we come to understand that offering consumers choice when it comes to money is beneficial.

Cash America International Inc. said today that it will close about one third of its Ohio lending locations in the next few months after voters chose to maintain the new payday loans restrictions.

These restrictions put caps on payday loans interest rates. Payday lenders were charging fees that amounted to around a 391% APR. Keep in mind that these loans are only given on a two week term and the average fees typically range between 15 to 20 dollars for a 100 dollar loan.

The caps limit the APR’s that are being charged to 28% percent. This now mean that fees on a $100 two week loan have now been reduced to $1.08 (less than 10 cents a day). Furthermore, loan customers can only take out up to four payday loans a year under the HB 545 bill which is now one of the strictest laws in the country.

Why the need for restrictions?

Those who back the new bill say that cash advances are defective products that trap borrowers into a cycle of debt. The cycle of debt refers to the additional fees and penalties that are incurred when borrowers fail to meet the terms of the contract they agreed to.

The Outcome

Opinions on the outcome differ greatly. Personally, I feel the law is unjust, unfair, and unfortunate for both the consumer as well as the 150 jobs that will be lost as a result of the ignorance on this campaign.

If you were in favor of the outcome, or would like to further explore my position on the on the matter, consider the following.

Let Me Adjust Your Thinking To Protect Your Freedoms!

Adjust your thinking and protect your freedoms!

First of all, there were over 400,000 signatures from registered OHIO State voters that signed a petition against this law being passed. Not because they were regular customers or dependents of the payday loans industry, but because they were educated on the issues they were going to vote on.

Much of the ammunition that swayed voters was the hype ( perhaps better defined as propaganda ) that focused on annual percentage rates, which painted an excessive and unrealistic picture of the fees involved in the payday loans industry.

Payday loans are given out on a two week term, so it is wrong to advertise the interest rates using annual percentage rates. 391% is a far cry from the actual 20% to 30% that it actually costs an individual to obtain the payday loan. The opposition failed to explain these rudimentary details.

Secondly, how can you blame an industry for the irresponsibility of consumers?. Payday loans are given to adults who understand the terms and conditions of the contracts they are signing. If the borrower accrues additional debt by not adhering to the terms of their contract, why should the industry suffer?

Thirdly, why would you want someone else to tell you what you can and can’t do with your own money? This is America; if i want to pull a loan for $100 and pay back $130 in two weeks, I should have the right to make that decision myself, not elected officials.

There are many situations where payday loans save consumers money. Using a payday loan to head off a late mortgage payment is just one example. For instance, a late house payment costs me a $75 late fee. If I had to borrow a $100 payday loan to avoid this late payment penalty, I would save $45.

Ohio voters have not only cost some of their own citizens their jobs, but they have also cost consumers in the state the privilege to use a valuable and reputable service.

Let The Cards Fall By Themselves

Business can destroy their own reputations without ignorant smear campaigns by uneducated consumers. If you don’t like payday loans, don’t use them. The rest will take care of itself. Calling in the cavalry of government regulation will only continue to limit our personal freedoms.

The Buckeye Institute For Public Policy Solutions, a self-described “nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility and limited government in Ohio” has weighed in on nine important myths about payday lending. May the analysis of Dr. Tom Lehman and Marc Kilmer make your ballot choice over Issue 5 easier to come by.

Here are the nine myths they tackle, with a little bit of commentary:

1. Payday lenders trap borrowers in a “cycle of debt” – To think clearly on this matter, it is necessary to understand that it is not a fast payday loan that cause borrowers’ financial problems. Almost universally, it is their pre-existing financial problems that cause them to take a loan. In many cases, that loan can help them get out of the hole they’re in.
2. Payday lenders charge 391% interest rates – This is a very common misconception. A Payday advance loan is a two-week loan with anywhere from a typical 15 to 30 percentage rate. 391 percent is an annual percentage rate, which works for mortgages and car loans, but payday advance loans are not annual loans.
3. Payday lenders make “obscene” profits – Lehman and Kilmer show that “as a percentage of revenues, profit margins for payday lending stores are lower than many other businesses, averaging between three and eight percent profitability.” Sure, that’s a profit, but it’s hardly obscene. Payday lenders are businesses, and in order to stay in business, there must be some profit.
4. Ohio politicians reformed, no banned, payday lending – What would you call capping rates at 28% APR? That’s profit of only $1.07 per $100 loans for a two-week loan. Does that sound like enough to support a business to you?
5. The average borrower takes out multiple loans – Evidence here is inconclusive. The methodological error critics generally seem to make is what Lehman and Kilmer call “ecological fallacy.” Essentially, “studies erroneously argue that growth in the number of payday loan lenders and/or growth in number of loans per storefront ipso facto causes loan customers to fall into a debt trap. There is no evidence to suggest this is the case.
6. Payday lending “strips” money from the community – There is an exchange of services going on here, people. There is a cost to the consumer, but they are receiving the benefit of the loan. No critic has stepped forward with a cost-benefit analysis that proves this claim.
7. Payday lenders “prey” on their borrowers – It should be clear that fast payday loan businesses are like any other legitimate business. They provide a product consumers freely buy. Moreover, in a voluntary economic transaction, “predator” and “prey” are not apt terms. Free will and choice are involved. If anything, with an average borrower default rate in the industry of around 20 percent, “predatory” borrowers tend to victimize lenders.
8. Payday lenders charge usurious rates, which are condemned in the Bible – America was founded on the separation of church and state, so let’s not play the pre-Revolutionary Church of England card here. Read Thomas Jefferson’s writings and you’ll find this fact to be unavoidable. Keep religion out of government and public policy. Besides, scriptures cited are always Old Testament, and with the coming of Jesus, didn’t he say “I am the end of the law.” Mosaic law is antiquated.
9. Consumers will be better off without payday loans – Solid evidence indicates people are worse off once loans are banned than before. See this Federal Reserve Bank study, paying particular attention to pages 20 and 26 re. North Carolina and Georgia and returned check rates.

Lehman and Kilmer’s report is clear, well-reasoned and well-supported. It’s the kind of thing Ohio voters truly need to make an informed decision about how they’ll vote on Issue 5 and the payday loan issue.

The fight to limit interest rates on payday loans will be on the ballot in Ohio. Opponents say that payday loans trap borrowers into a cycle of debt, stating that the interest rates are to high.

What the Opponents of the Payday Loan Industry Want

Opponents of payday lending want to change the state law to limit the annual percentage rate from the current 391% to 21% . The payday loans industry however says that this would put them out of business and it is easy to understand why if you understand how the payday loan industry works.

How the Payday Loan Industry Works

391% interest sounds exceptionally high by any measure. Heck, it sounds criminal and this is exactly what the opponents of the payday loans industry want to persuade the citizens of Ohio to think.

When the average person sees the APR of 391% they think that to borrow a payday loan they will have to pay the APR back in interest. But the key here is to understand that payday loans are rarely longer than two weeks in term, and the average fee on $100 payday loans are only about 15% or $15. Suddenly, payday loans sound a lot more reasonable.

15% may still be be to high for some folks but you also have to remember that this industry takes a considerable amount of risk to supply this service. Most loans are given out with minimal qualification criteria and are deposited into the customers bank account within hours of approval.

The Consumer Benefit of Payday Loans

Payday loans don’t trap people in cycles of debt; they actually help prevent the cycle of debt, but ultimately it’s the customer that must be responsible with the funds he or she is borrowing.

For example, payday loans are usually a last resort method to obtain quick cash, and individuals who experience sudden car trouble may need a quick loan to get their car serviced so they don’t miss any more work or perhaps it’s the middle of winter and the furnace breaks down. There are many scenarios that i could mention but their are not many alternatives available to address a financial emergency with immediate cash.

All said, responsible borrowers use payday loans to save themselves money. This may sound like an oxymoron but it’s true, it works, and it’s a simple process.

When a person finds themselves short of cash at the end of the month and cannot scrape together the cash to make the mortgage payment or perhaps another type of creditor payment, borrowing a payday loan to make up the shortage in funds can save you on the late payment fee thus preventing a cycle of debt, that is if they pay back their loan within the contracted term.

Should Payday Loans be Restricted in Ohio?

I don’t belief it’s fair to restrict the payday loan industry based upon a borrowers irresponsibility. Should we shut down the automobile industry because of irresponsible drivers? Of course not!

Conclusion…

Payday loans don’t trap people into a cycle of debt, they encourage the customers to pay back the debt within the agreed upon term. The irresponsibility of the borrowers is solely responsible for this cycle of debt, no one else.

Don’t let this irresponsibility lead to closing the doors on these businesses as well as the thousands of employees within the industry who could lose their jobs. They have done nothing wrong, nor have their employers.

In his October 14 analysis of Ohioans for Financial Freedom’s anti-Issue 5 television advertisement “Washington Mess,” Siegel takes a number of thinly veiled shots at the payday loan industry. If he were on target, perhaps his work would inspire me to say something other than, “You fill me with inertia.”

As it stands, here are a few shells that Siegel loads in the chamber. However, he proceeds to leave his gun at home:

The ad’s attempt to link the national mortgage crisis to the payday lending rate is absurd

You’re correct that the 1968 Truth in Lending Act (TILA) required lenders to disclose rates, but that isn’t the issue here. If anything, the mortgage lending crisis has been and continues to be much worse than anything to come out of the payday advance industry.

Home buyers were promised that they would be able to refinance their adjustable rate mortgages for more favorable terms. As housing prices fell, refinancing became much more difficult. Defaults and foreclosures were soon to follow, as borrowers could no longer afford their high mortgage payments.

To its credit, the ad does lead off with this:

Washington regulators who brought us the mortgage mess are making a mess of Ohio’s economy

Our government could have quelled the mortgage crisis years ago, but didn’t. Not only that, but important figures like Congressman Barney Frank (D) of Massachusetts’ 4th District even advised that people invest in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He claimed the mortgage lenders were “not in danger” on July 14, 2008.

Then the bottom fell out.

Mind you, I don’t normally agree with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, but here’s a great “discussion” he had with Frank about misleading the public when it comes to the mortgage crisis:

Clearly, if Washington regulators feel the need to stick their noses in where they don’t belong and regulate away emergency loans that payday advance lenders offer, we’re in for a bumpy ride. As the ad encourages in closing:

In the economic storm, keep all your loan choices

And don’t be fooled by the APR shell game

OK, I get it. The Federal Reserve insists on making lenders and credit card companies list their rates as annual percentage rates. For a credit card, home loan, vehicle loan, student loan or any other large-scale loan, it’s appropriate to express them under the annual rate banner.

However, payday advance loans do not fit the “apples-to-apples” comparison that the Fed and journalists like Jim Siegel seem to enjoy. They are two-week loans. If the fee is $15 per $100 loaned, that’s 15 percent interest you’ll owe, not 391 percent for an entire year (which is a superfluous stat). No one loan can be held that long, and plentiful evidence exists that about 78 percent of customers use no fax loans once per year to as high as once per month. In addition, more than half of customers take loans six or fewer times per year (all data per the Community Financial Services Association). That’s hardly a vicious “cycle of debt,” considering that most loans are paid on time, typically within a two-week period.

Here’s the deal

Considering the above information, how could the “average” customer of payday loansbe someone who takes out more than 12 loans a year, as Siegel suggests. Payday advance loans are two-week loans that the majority of consumers pay off when due. Hence, they aren’t borrowing more than they can afford. How ya like them apples, Mr. Siegel?

If you’ve been reading my blog entries for a little bit of time, you know that I’m a sucker for a controversial news story. My desires were fed this morning with an article from USA Today’s website entitled, “NYC teachers sue to wear political buttons in school.”

In the report, it tells of how Universities, in various states, have forbidden their students, faculty, and staff, from not only wearing candidate-supporting garb, but also participating in partisan rallies and the like. Justification stems from an apparent law, proclaiming that all state employees are forbidden from participating in political rallies and/or expressing their support or opposition of a candidate.

Seriously, isn’t that what going to a public university is about; being able to learn of the world around you, by hearing from all viewpoints equally? At least that’s what I thought, also considering that in order to know who you support for elected office you must know where they stand. I also thought that, despite the predominate slant to the left, a public university is where you can believe what you choose, and shed fears of the prevalent agenda within our nation’s K-12 systems.

Brainwashing children

The late George Carlin explained the pitfalls of the public school system best during his 2001 HBO special, “Complaints and Grievances.” In it, he describes public schools as indoctrination centers, where children are sent to be brainwashed, stripped of their identities and become mindless members of a consumerist society. Brother, we applaud you for telling it like it is.

Further proof can be seen of this, within the evidence I gained during a recent conversation with my boss. During the meeting, she told me of one of her children who was told he was wrong when he answered “George W. Bush,” not “John Kerry,” in response to the exam question, “who do you support for president?” You’d never believe what my rightfully-seething boss was told when she confronted the higher-ups at the public institution.

“Kids in public school are taught that they must be obedient,” one of them responded. Certainly, if that were my child in the system, being told that they’re on the verge of flunking because their views clash with those of the majority, I would be outraged, as well. Because, hey, to say the least, what they’re teaching aren’t the tenets of the true American way; instead, they’re pushing for a socialist society, where we all live the way that Big Brother sees fit.

My stomach turns

Hearing of such things going on in our public schools never fails to make my stomach turn. I mean, the concept of Universities employing agenda-driven professors is nothing new, but today’s students ought to be completely free to learn about the world around them. Then, in the end, the option should be there to decide what they believe, not that of their legislative masters.

The same thing goes for another thing which, in tough times, is just as important as our constitutional right to free speech; installment loans. Just like the right for folks to express their political views on public campuses, the quick and convenient installment loans service has come under fire, with state and national politicians wielding the flame throwers.

Vote YES

We have the opportunity to stomp out the fires they’ve started, coming up on November 4. We can save the short term installment loans industry by voting Yes on Arizona’s Proposition 200, and no on Ohio’s Governor-backed HB 545. Otherwise, our school children will not only continue to be told to “sit down and shut up,” but our economies will suffer even further decay.

On November 4, 2008, we will not only find out who our new leader for the next four years is, but we’ll learn the fate of several controversial things in a number of states.

In Washington State, for example, lawmakers wish to enact a measure that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. Initiative 1000, if passed, would make the Evergreen State only the second in the country to give terminally ill patients the option of ending their own lives under the supervision of their doctor.

Here is a quick video;

Supporters say that enacting the law means that people can avoid the excruciating pain and humiliation that comes with withering away due to terminal illness. Thus, they would end their suffering and be able to “die with dignity,” as the affirmative case states. Several folks in this camp cite what happened to Terry Schiavo, who became the subject of a high-profile national debate, government weigh-ins, and the inevitable media circus, before succumbing to her terminal brain illness.

Opponents of the proposed law state that the language of the initiative contains way too many loopholes; many of which could constitute a breach of ethics or create other problems. For instance, opponents claim that the initiative requires no consultation or consent from the patients’ friends or family, before the lethal drugs are administered. Therefore, friends or family would never know that their terminally-ill friend decided to take their own life.

Many other folks don’t like the law, stating that the bill also enables mentally-ill, depressed, and/or suicidal folks to irrationally decide to go through with the procedure without a psychological evaluation. Currently, Oregon is the only state where physician-assisted suicide is legal.

A New Take on an Old Issue

Meanwhile in California, their potentially controversial Proposition 4 will also be put in the hands of voters on Election Day. The measure, also referred to as Sarah’s Law, would require that all un-emancipated minors, sans a few exceptions, have their physician notify their parent or legal guardian before they are allowed to terminate their pregnancy. The measure would also require that a minor wait 48 hours after the notification, before the procedure is completed.

Supporters of this Constitutional amendment say that it ought to be passed, because of the chance that a minor may put themselves at risk of complications by having such a procedure. Furthermore, we could better hunt down dangerous and/or violent sexual predators that impregnate their young female victims.

Opponents say that things should stay as they are, because some parents would kick their daughters out of their homes, beat them, or even worse, upon learning that they’re pregnant and/or requesting an abortion. Also, besides the fact that communication is non-existent in some families, it is argued that such a law would make dangerous back alley, or self-inflicted abortions that much more attractive.

We All Fall Down

However, for reasons of putting the welfare of entire states, not just individuals, in jeopardy, two measures in Arizona and Ohio put a lot more on the line. In specific, Arizona’s Proposition 200, and Ohio’s House Bill 545, will determine whether the no fax payday loans companies shall continue helping working Americans in dire straits.

A law on the books in Arizona installs an exemption, in favor of the no fax payday loans lenders, so that they’re not subject to the same 36 percent interest rate cap that other loan products (mortgages, credit cards, other bank loans) must conform to. If this law, dubbed the Payday Loan Reform Act, were to pass, no fax payday loan stores in the state would remain open past 2010, the year when the original bill’s “sunset clause” goes into effect. If not, Arizonans would be robbed of an invaluable way out of tough times once the measure expires. Additionally, the failure would put 2,500 people out of work, in a time when the economic outlook is pretty bleak.

No fax payday loans are also at risk in Ohio, thanks to the Governor Ted Strickland-backed HB 545. In this case, citizens’ financial options will be ripped right out from under them, should the measure be enacted. What’s worse, the number of Ohio jobs lost would dwarf the number on the chopping block in Arizona; a whopping 6,000 to be exact.

Bottom line, nobody can tell you how to vote. But, shall you be concerned about losing your access to no fax payday loans, and preserving 8,500 families’ abilities to supply a roof over their heads and food on the table, maybe you ought to think about it.

On November 4, you can save an entire state’s economy from hitting rock bottom; Vote “Yes” on Arizona’s Proposition 200, and “No” on Ohio’s HB 545.

Just like in any of the other past election seasons, this year’s television attack advertisements and other forms of mudslinging are downright nasty.
Time and again, our presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, have been trading blows back and forth, attempting to find the juiciest scoop on their candidates to turn the American people off to them; whether it has to do with something political or otherwise.

Candidates for local and state offices surely aren’t playing nice either. In my home state, for example, both the incumbent governor and her challenger have stooped to new lows in their deliberate use of well-disguised half truths. You wouldn’t know this, however, unless you tuned into a nightly news segment, where anchors debunk the myths with actual, researched facts.

A Terrible Lie

One of such advertisements that I remember clearly, is one that our Governor cooked up to scare residents away from her challenger. In it, she makes the declaration, boosted by so-called “evidence,” that her opponent has been a long-time advocate of lowering the state’s minimum wage. Then, she ties the statement to the turbulent status of the economy, which ultimately paints the challenger as a money-hungry sleaze ball.

What the advertisement fails to tell you is that the “minimum wage reduction,” only refers to persons under the age of 18, who undergo a training period at any job they may take. This would mean that these working teenagers would be paid 85 percent of the state minimum wage, while under going job training. It was the Governor who spun the view to sound like this “minimum wage reduction” would apply to all workers, not just teenagers. Don’t you just love how politics work?

Crippling the People for the Benefit of the Public?

With all of these half-truths and whole-hearted lies clogging up the television and airwaves, it makes me think that the truth will never prevail. If this were so, everyone in the nation would know just how crooked these politicians, on all sides of the spectrum, really are. Thus, the curtain would be pulled back on these candidates’ real agendas, and nobody would be qualified to represent us in office.

Case and point: the governors of Ohio and Arizona, who are working to drive the no fax payday loans industry completely out of their respective states. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has said that he wants to kick these organizations, which faithfully pay taxes and provide an invaluable financial resource to real working people, out in the name of “consumer protection.” What they’ll never tell you, though, is that they’re only doing it to win the votes of the millions who only turn to the agenda-pushing media to “stay informed.”

Unfortunately, there are millions of Americans who will never know the truth about the no fax payday loans industry. Nobody will ever realize that such companies give money to real, working people, who just need that leg up to tide themselves over until payday and get back on their feet. They’ll also never know that should bans be instilled, either by approving Ohio’s HB 545, or rejecting Arizona’s Proposition 200, thousands of jobs will be lost, and their economy will be in further shambles.

Adding Insult to Injury

Or, if presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who the media has been worshipping for the last two years, has his way with his proposed national ban on the industry, I don’t even want to see how our financial situation will pan out then. Because, hey, 6,000 jobs lost in one state is bad enough, which is what Ohio will lose if HB 545 passes. But, when you multiply that by the number of states where no fax payday loans are legal, how will our national economy survive?

I just really wish that someone, once and for all, could pull back the curtain and show the uninformed media consumers what’s really going on. Maybe then we would have, as Obama has overplayed it, the “change we need.”