October 04, 2007

Following breathless press exposes of the "payday lending" business near military bases (they charge high interest rates! It's a bad deal if you've got access to conventional credit!) a new federal law sharply restricts the interest that can be charged to military borrowers. This report from Utah finds lenders responding by simply refusing to make loans to members of the military. A critic of the industry, Linda Hilton of the Coalition of Religious Communities, says she's glad the option is disappearing and recommends that if service personnel find themselves in financial straits "then they ask their church, military relief groups, family or others for help". More great moments in predatory lending law: Overlawyered, Oct. 17, 2006.