Eight years ago the Ohio Legislature and a voter-approved ballot initiative both tried to reign in high-interest rate borrowing known as payday lending. The industry found a way around the new regulations and today continues charging triple-digit interest rates. A Tuesday night forum in Newark seeks to raise public awareness about the payday lending industry.
Newark’s Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church will host the forum which will feature representatives from Senator Sherrod Brown’s office and the state attorney general’s office. Another panelist, COHHIO’s Bill Faith.
“This is a business that’s designed to rip people off and trap them in an endless cycle of debt,” Faith says.
Annual interest rates for payday loans can rise above 300 percent; sometimes forcing customers to borrow elsewhere.
“People get sucked into the payday loan debt trap. For way too many people it’s not just a single loan they end up with loan after loan after loan,” says Faith.
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently taking public comment on proposed federal payday lending rules.