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So reality demands that we categorize charging desperate people an APR of 200%, 300% or more as "selling products and services to poor people," as if doing so i

• perl4ever 8y ago
  I don't think that just because a business exists, it isn't predatory. Maybe payday loans are on net bad and should be eliminated. Perhaps what people say about trapping customers in a cycle is true. However, I don't think that just because an APR sounds extremely large, that makes the loan predatory or otherwise unnecessary. Just like with housing and everything else, when you rent something for a short period of time, there is a fixed overhead, and if you annualize it you can clutch your pearls over how high it is. But that doesn't in itself mean it's not a useful or even vital service at a fair price. If people need money for a few days to avoid being evicted, jailed, losing their job, whatever, and the APR includes, say, a $20 service charge, it seems disingenuous to attack it solely on the annualized interest rate. You might as well say that we should eliminate $100/night hotels because that equates to a $3,000/month price which is clearly outrageous. On an unrelated note, I wonder if the payday loan places are the same as the check cashing places where you take your paycheck if you don't have a bank account. Should public policy consider that attacking one side of the business might affect another?