- Payday loan users can also get hit by bank fees, watchdog finds, By Becky Yerak, April 20, 2016, Chicago Tribune: “High interest rates might not be the only problem for borrowers who take out payday loans online, a consumer watchdog says. Borrowers who don’t keep enough cash in their checking accounts to pay off those short-term loans can also get hit with repeated overdraft or insufficient-funds fees from their banks, according to a report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…”
- Bank fees are a hidden cost of payday loans, By Stacy Cowley, April 20, 2016, New York Times: “Payday loans are well-known for their high interest rates and fees, but for many borrowers, they have a second, less obvious cost: the bank fees incurred when automatic loan repayments fall short. Bank overdraft and insufficient-fund fees often add hundreds of dollars to the cost of a loan, according to a study released Wednesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is preparing to propose new rules for the payday loan industry. The agency said it analyzed 18 months of transaction data from nearly 20,000 accounts showing payments to Internet-based payday lenders…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty