Churches as an Alternative to Payday Lenders

Payday loans are exceedingly expensive, often trapping borrowers into a cycle of rolling their loan over for many months while interest compounds. Postal banking has been suggested as a way to provide people with better access to less-expensive loans. And the CFPB has indicated that it intends to regulate payday and similar high-cost loans (maybe that will happen soon?). In the meantime, some churches apparently have taken matters into their own hands.

A recent Washington Post article describes how churches in Virginia have helped some of their members secure manageable loans from the Jubilee Assistance Fund (very apt name) and the Virginia United Methodist Credit Union. ("Faith-based" credit unions exist across the country and also offer loans to churches. A few of these credit unions end up as creditors in churches' Chapter 11 cases). The article reports that similar church-run lending programs are sprinkled across the country, with churches in some states seemingly having more coordinated efforts.

In the face of the payday industry, these programs undoubtedly are a blessing to the lucky church members who are able to obtain loans. The existence of these programs--and the interesting personal stories in the article--perhaps show how crucial regulation of the high-cost lending industry is, as well as indicate how desperately many people want and would benefit from access to lower-cost lending options.

Comments

[Matthew Bruckner]

Apparently there is a proposal by Senator Sherrod Brown afoot to allow low-income workers to claim part of their Earned Income Tax Credits when they need a cash boost. The linked article suggests this is intended specifically to combat the need to take out payday loans.

http://www.cleveland.com/consumeraffairs/index.ssf/2015/01/brown_proposes_letting_low-inc.html#incart_river