Oregonians for Payday Loan Fairness

Economic Fairness Coalition Newsletter: February 8, 2007

100,000 Oregonians pay a premium to cash their checks at unregulated retail check cashing stores. As much as 6 to 10 percent is sliced off the paychecks of workers who don’t have checking accounts. High priced financial services are stripping the wealth from low-wage families.

Your phone call can help families hold on to more of their own hard earned money.

Next week, lawmakers in the House will vote on a bill to put reasonable limits on check cashing fees. How the vote turns out will depend, in part, on how we respond today. The check cashing and payday loan industry are flooding the phone lines to try and stop these bills from moving forward.

They need to hear from people like you who believe it’s time to bring an end to predatory high priced financial services.

Make the call today!

Dial 1-800-332-2313 and ask the operator to connect you to your House Representative.

Message:
I’m calling to urge you to vote yes on the package of consumer lending bills (HB 2202, 2203, 2204, 2205). All of these bills will help curb predatory lending and make financial services more affordable.

HB 2202 – the check-cashing bill. This bill will cap the fee at 2% for government checks and 3% for payroll checks.

Cashing payroll or government checks is virtually risk free for the business, yet fees can be as high as 6-10%. For the business that’s pure profit but for a family in a tight economy that’s money down the drain.
HB 2202 will put money back into the pockets of those who need it the most.
HB 2203 and HB 2204 – tighten rules for short-term car title and payday lenders.
Payday and car title lenders charge rates as high as 500% interest. These bills will ensure that all licensed short-term lenders follow the same rules of charging only 36% interest.
This is a positive step forward to end predatory lending.

****FEED BACK****
It helps to hear back from you after you make the call. Let us know who you called and how they will vote if they told you. Call us at 503-239-8029 or email Angela Martin at Angela@ouroregon.org

****NEXT STEPS****
We know that the best guarantee to end predatory lending is to pass a 36% cap for all loans. That’s why the Economic Fairness Coalition supports a bill to extend the 36% interest cap and limit on fees to all licensed consumer lenders. This bill will be introduced soon.

Payday Loan Fairness: [x] Yes, [] No

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