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Check your facts: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm E.g. Alabama: ALABAMA, the legal rate of interest is 6%; the ge
by r90 16y ago
Check your facts: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm
E.g. Alabama:
ALABAMA, the legal rate of interest is 6%; the general usury limit is 8%. The judgment rate is 12%.
Like I said, it's not perfect, there are many exceptions. The US has devolved quite a bit from the humane society that built it up.
But generous bankruptcy laws still make it possible for Americans to escape high debt.
In India, suicide seems to be the only solution for some.
- roel_v 16y agoDid you even read your own link? Here's the second (!) paragraph from it: "But my car loan is higher than that"; "But I'm paying way more than that on my credit cards." That's right! Banks have separate rules. In fact, due to high inflation, in 1980, the federal government passed a special law which allowed national banks (the ones that have the word "national" or the term "N.A." in their name, and savings banks that are federally chartered) to ignore state usury limits and pegged the rate of interest at a certain number of points above the federal reserve discount rate. In addition, specially chartered organizations like small loan companies and installment plan sellers (like car financing companies) have their own rules.
- _delirium 16y agoThat seems to support the claim that this is a recent departure from the "general and historical" caps on interest rates, though: most states have long had usury laws with interest-rate caps, and national banks were only exempted from them in 1980.