From a Democrat, of course:
Since Mick "I only talk to people who give me money" Mulvaney doesn't want to do anything about payday lenders, it's good to see Gillibrand stepping in. Just in case you weren't aware:
That's worse than taking a cash advance on your credit card.
This won't go anywhere -- the major banks, co-owners of most of Congress, will see it as competition, which they don't like, currency exchanges won't like it, and the Republicans are trying to kill off the USPS anyway.
But it's nice someone's making the effort.
Via Joe.My.God. More reporting at the link.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is proposing legislation aimed at putting an end to current payday lending practices by giving some banking services a new home: the U.S. Post Office.
The legislation, called the Postal Banking Act, would make retail banking services available at all U.S. Postal Service locations. That amounts to 30,000 post offices nationwide.
Services would include small-dollar loans for consumers that offer low fees and low interest rates.
Those transactions would compete with payday loans, a short-term advance that typically comes due with your next paycheck.
Since Mick "I only talk to people who give me money" Mulvaney doesn't want to do anything about payday lenders, it's good to see Gillibrand stepping in. Just in case you weren't aware:
The terms for payday loans are often unfavorable, said Alex Horowitz, senior research officer for the consumer finance project at Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent research organization.
About 12 million individuals use payday loans annually, according to Horowitz. The average loan is $375 for a period of five months, which accrues about $520 in fees, he said.
"These loans are extraordinarily expensive with annual percentage rates near 400 percent," Horowitz said.
That's worse than taking a cash advance on your credit card.
This won't go anywhere -- the major banks, co-owners of most of Congress, will see it as competition, which they don't like, currency exchanges won't like it, and the Republicans are trying to kill off the USPS anyway.
But it's nice someone's making the effort.
Via Joe.My.God. More reporting at the link.
2 comments:
The UK and much of Europe have had postal banking since the 19th Century at least. That's probably part of the reason it won't happen here -- we don't want to do anything like those socialist countries do, after all.
It was either one of the articles Joe quoted or someone in the comments noted that 183 countries have postal banking. But, if it works for the rest of the world, it's obviously not for us. We're special. magamaga!
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