Richardville: Michigan Doesn't Allow 'Predatory Lending'
Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville of Monroe, the senator behind the bill that would allow auto title loan companies to do an end-run around the state’s title loan ban by posing as pawnbrokers, proclaimed the 276-percent interest loans the title companies would provide consumers weren’t predatory.
The Detroit News reports the outgoing senator said as much before reporters last week during the state legislature’s lame-duck session, adding that he isn’t trying to “ram the bill” through said session, despite introducing it the day after Election Day, and making sure it could bypass committee on the way to the floor for vote.
Richardville also said bank and credit union representatives were meeting with those in the pawn industry to reach a compromise on the bill, which was news to one of the bill’s opponents, Michigan Pawnbrokers Association president Mark Aubrey:
The Michigan Pawnbrokers Association has not been contacted by any agency for compromise. There is no middle ground here. Title lending has no place in the Pawnbroker Act and no place in the pockets of Michigan’s consumers.
Should the bill — No. 1138 in the Senate, No. 5954 in the House — pass, a loan of $1,000 that adds $360 of interest in 12 months — based on a cap of 3 percent per month — would pull in $2,760 within the same period at an interest rate of 276 percent annually, thanks to a 20 percent so-called “usage fee” charged monthly.
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Predatory Lending? No mention of "Retarded Borrowing"? All people can take it or leave it and shop for a better rate...Or do they have a gun to our head?...Only bratty little parasitic left-wing runts cry "Predatory Lending".
Life is more "fair" for some than others. Republican-sponsored riders stuffed into the new budget bill would re-institute taxpayer-funded backing (bailout) of risky "investment" by the biggest banks in this country, who essentially pay ZERO INTEREST on borrowed money to begin with (and who are kind enough to pay me .15% on my savings, in return). Meanwhile, title-loan lenders spend millions of dollars on political influence peddling to grow their profits. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/roderick-aycox-auto-title-loans-romney-super-pac_n_1348215.html There seems to be an undercurrent that those who would borrow money against their vehicle are somehow 'subhuman', while those who make money lending them money under these usurious terms are businessmen, 'pillars of the community', so to speak.
Every man is given the key to the gates of heaven, the same key opens the gates of hell. Contrary to some people's wishes and beliefs, we cannot all be saved. Nature's cruel, and that's a fact no man nor policy can change.
If I was not going to be on the hook for the result of predatory lending then I might look the other way but it just allows people to dig a deeper hole. Usury laws used to balance the needs of borrowers and lenders. Those laws are being rolled back to the greater detriment of everyone.