When 456% APR isn’t enough

Satire can be cruel, but not as cruel a debt-sprial costing the most vulnerable hundreds or thousands of dollars of available fees and interest.


Predatory Lending Association
Superb.

(If you need a loan, try a credit union.)

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

1 comment

  1. Excellent satire!

    In my state some limits have been placed on the number of dollars that can be borrowed through pay-day lending. But as soon as this law went into effect, the lenders came out with a new product to “help populations needing financial assistance”. They are called automobile title loans. You go in, and get a loan (at absurdly high interest rates often above 25%) using the title on your car as collateral. If you miss 2 payments, the car gets repossesed. How you get to your low wage job after that is your problem.

    I live in a neighborhood that has over 40% of the population living below the poverty line. On a regular basis, I get junk-mail flyers advertising these title loans, with the most recent one having the header “Help Your Family Have Happy Holidays”.

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