Ten Reasons Why You Should Care About Predatory Lending
1. Your lender wants you to pay late.
Did you know your credit card company can change your payment due date each month hoping you’ll miss your payment? And lenders can charge that $39 late fee even if you’re only an hour late.
2. You can’t win.
If you have a problem with your credit card company (imagine that), you cannot sue them in court. Instead, you have to take your complaint to an “arbitrator” – who, 95% of the time, will rule in favor of the credit card company.
3. Banks donate more money to politicians than the oil industry.
Clearly, they’re up to something.
4. There are more Payday Loan outlets in the United States than McDonalds restaurants.
And you’ll never guess where they all are: in low-income and minority neighborhoods.
5. People can’t choose the careers they want.
In 2001 the average college grad with loans had $20,402 in debt, and young people are taking on higher-paying but less meaningful work because of the debt albatross.
6. Abuse is their business.
The more we pay in interest and fees, the higher their profits, so the credit card companies are always looking for excuses to add new fees or jack up interest rates on our debts.
7. All those credit card offers that come in the mail are bad for the environment.
Enough said.
8. The poor pay the most.
23% of low-income families don’t have a checking account, so they rely on expensive financial services instead. Payday lending and Tax Refund Anticipation Loans alone drain $5 billion from families each year.
9. Discrimination.
Anyone smell racism in the mortgage market? If not, read the stats: over 70% of high-income African American homebuyers in the Boston area received a subprime mortgage in 2006. Over half of African American homebuyers and over one third of Latino homebuyers nationwide received a subprime loan in 2006, as compared to one in five white homebuyers.
10. The subprime mortgage scandal.
Over two million families who received subprime mortgages since 1998 will end up losing their homes to foreclosure. Many already have. This will cost Americans as much as $164 billion.
Sources
2. You Can't Win. Public Citizen. “The Arbitration Trap: How Credit Card Companies Ensnare Consumers.” http://www.citizen.org/documents/Final_wcover.pdf
3. Big Banks vs. Big Oil. Open Secrets.org. “Top Industries Giving to Members of Congress 2006 Cycle.”
4. More Payday Loans Than McDonalds. USA Today. “Payday Lenders Craft User Protections.” February 22, 2007. Also NEDAP. “Sample Maps.”
5. Pushing People Into The Corporate Machine. Nellie Mae. “Undergraduate Students and Credit Cards: An Analysis of Usage Rates and Trends.” Also The Associated Press. “High Priced Student Loans Spell Trouble.” September 30, 2007.
6. Systemic Abuse. Consumer Federation of America. “Testimony of Travis B. Plunkett, Legislative director, On behalf of The Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action and Consumers Union, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate.”
8. The poor pay the most. The Brookings Institution. “From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families.” Also Center for Responsible Lending. "Payday Loans” and "Refund Anticipation Loans."
9. Discrimination. Massachusetts Community & Banking Council. "Mortgage
Lending to Traditionally Underserved Borrowers & Neighborhoods in Boston,
Greater Boston and Massachusetts,
2006" (PDF) Also "2006 HMDA Data," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Vol. 94.
10. The Subprime Mortgage Meltdown. Center for Responsible Lending. “Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Consumers.”
