Category: Personal Finance

KMOX Radio, July 1, 2015 While many businesses in Ferguson have still not re-opened, Pay Day Loans  was quick to open their doors. They have three locations along West Florissant. Jacqueline Hutchinson is Board Chair for Missouri Consumers Council and says that this is typical from predators. “We know that the rates for Pay Day Loans can be as much as 1,400 percent as compared to if you borrowed the money from a bank,” says Hutchinson. She says that there needs to be le ...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 29, 2015 WASHINGTON • The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday it has reached a settlement with Eagle Bank & Trust Company of Missouri resolving allegations of lending discrimination in St. Louis. Mike Walsh, the bank's president and CEO, said Eagle disagreed with the government's allegations but agreed to the settlement to "put the best interests of the people we serve above any desire to continue discussions in the hopes of rea ...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 13, 2015 Erica Hollins borrowed $100 in 2006 at the Loan Express store on Olive Street downtown. By 2011, she had paid back $3,592, garnished from her wages at a nursing and retirement home. She might still be paying today had she not found a lawyer to try to stop it. She wasn’t — and isn’t — the only one in that fix. Other people who borrow small amounts in St. Louis end up paying 50 and 60 times the original amount borrowed through wage garn ...

KMOX, July 1, 2015 While many businesses in Ferguson have still not re-opened, Pay Day Loans was quick to open their doors. They have three locations along West Florissant. Jacqueline Hutchinson is Board Chair for Missouri Consumers Council and says that this is typical from predators. “We know that the rates for Pay Day Loans can be as much as 1,400 percent as compared to if you borrowed the money from a bank,” says Hutchinson. She says that there needs to be legislati ...

Two Videos Give Good, Basic Information on Predatory Lending Two short videos produced by The Pew Charitable Trusts lay out the issues about short-term, cash loans in plain language.  Click here. ...

The New York Times, March 26, 2015 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created at President Obama’s urging in the aftermath of the financial crisis, took its most aggressive step yet on behalf of consumers on Thursday, proposing regulations to rein in short-term payday loans that often have interest rates of 400 percent or more. The rules would cover a wide section of the $46 billion payday loan market that serves the working poor, many of ...

NBC News, November 24, 2014 There are more payday lenders in the U.S. than McDonald's or Starbucks, reflecting economic conditions in which fast money is even more important than fast food. Payday lending, in which users pay a fee for what amounts to an advance on their paychecks, has blossomed over the past 20 years. There are now more than 20,000 across the country, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, while McDonald's boasts 14,267 locations. They're used most of ...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 29, 2014 A local effort to increase the availability of banking services to minority and low-income households appears to be gaining traction, according to the latest figures from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The percentage of black households in the St. Louis area who were unbanked — that is, didn’t have a checking or savings account — fell to 13.3 percent in 2013, a sharp decline from 29 percent in 2011. When the survey results were r ...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 2, 2014 Midland States Banks said it will open a branch and loan production office in the St. Louis region as part of a settlement of a fair housing complaint that sought to block its acquisition of Heartland Bank. Effingham, Ill.-based Midland States Bank announced Thursday it will open a new local branch in a predominantly minority community in the city of St. Louis, a loan office in the St. Louis region and a branch in Joliet, Ill. The bank ...