Texas legislators in House of Representatives passed a measure recently requiring that payday loan and auto title lenders disclose to customers information about their interest rates and fees upfront.  Other legislation required lenders to discuss with customers other ways they could get credit and how those credit avenues compare to payday loans or auto title [...]

In 2009, the governor of Delaware and the legislature created a new state law which required high-interest loan businesses to pay a $1,500 annual fee per office, with the fund earmarked for public financial education.  Because of the fund, that state has awarded $500,000 in financial literacy grants to 13 nonprofit organizations. Gov. Jack Markell [...]

We've heard a lot about the dangers of traditional payday loans and many states have clamped down on lending practices that exploit the poor and vulnerable.  But as the state and federal governments have clamped down on payday lending a new crop of payday lenders have sprung up online.  Many of these online payday lenders [...]

Across the country state legislators are lashing out at payday lenders because communities are being exploited and severely indebted.  But what can we do to create viable alternatives to payday loans. Let's take a look at some possible options: Second chance bank accounts.  Many debtors who depend on payday loans are unbanked. Helping the unbanked [...]

As the groundswell of resentment to all things associated with debt grows, some communities are taking action to prevent payday lenders from setting up shop in their neighborhoods. Galveston City Council last week denied its finance committee chairman a permit to allow a payday loan company to operate on land he owns on the city's [...]

A group of Dallas-Fort Worth pastors are initiating a battle against car title and payday loan stores popping up in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The pastors are saying that the payday lenders are failing to offer anything of value to their neighborhoods and that they are little more than predators, profiting on the desperation of the poor.  [...]

Payday lenders provided $30.3 billion in loans to consumers in 2009 via their stores and an additional $8.2 billion in payday loans online, generating over $10 billion in profits.  But many of those profits came from the social security checks of senior citizens who are struggling to repay the loans. On July 2, a 74-year-old [...]

The FDIC announced the results of a two-year pilot program designed to help banks offer alternatives to payday loans that would be "safe, affordable and feasible." Under the test program, the FDIC worked with participating banks to help them offer loans of up to $2,500 at maximum interest rates of 36% -- instead of the [...]

Law enforcement officials around the country are reporting that consumers who have applied for or received payday loans in the past are being targeted by scammers posing as debt collectors, federal agents, attorneys and even police officers. The scammers are targeting low-income individuals and other vulnerable populations claiming that they are trying to collect on [...]

State Representative Joe Farias has been fighting to get legislation passed that will regulate the 2,800 payday lenders in Texas and provide caps on loan interest rates which can increase up to 400% for a payday loan. "They can operate without being regulated at the city, state,  or federal level...The intent we are caring forward [...]