This week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to debate and vote on HB 2191, a bill which will legalize 300% interest rate debt for the first time in the Commonwealth's history.   The vote could occur as early as Tuesday.  Click here to contact your legislators today know that voters oppose this predatory bill!

Pennsylvania is paying attention.  Editorial boards from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Patriot News, the Lancaster Sunday Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and columnists and editors in the Morning Call, the Erie Reader, and the Unionville Times have called on legislators to vote against this bill.   And, letters to the editor such from the St. Vincent DePaul Society of Pittsburgh and from the Keystone Research Center are showing up around the state.  Click here to let your legislators know today that this bill will not go unnoticed.  

The out-of-state payday lenders are hoping to push this bill through quicker than the blink of an eye, but statewide opposition is mounting just a quickly.  In a recent poll, 80% of Pennsylvania voters opposed allowing 300% interest rate limits. Even after hearing arguments used by supporters to justify these high costs, 69% of voters still said they would be less likely to vote for a legislator that supported 300% interest rates, as HB 2191 would allow.  Click here to let your legislators know today that you are one of these voters who oppose HB 2191.

Who will your legislator stand with?  Out-of-state predatory lenders peddling 300% interest rate debt or the millions of Pennsylvanians opposing a legalized debt trap?

Click here to tell your legislators today to oppose HB 2191!

A growing number of religious grous, veterans, and community leaders across Pennsylvania are asking legislators to oppose HB 2191, a measure that will authorize 300% payday loans in the Commonwealth. 

Click below to hear Stephen Drachler, Executive Director of United Methodist Advocacy in Pennsylvania, make the case against predatory lending: 

Payday loans typically carry triple-digit interest rates and trap borrowers in a cycle of repeated borrowing.  Under HB 2191, payday lenders are allowed to charge annual interest rates of over 300% for a typical $300 loan.  In states with similar laws to HB 2191, a typical borrower is indebted for more than 200 days a year.

Yesterday, the House Consumer Affairs committee approved HB 2191, which will legalize 300% interest rate debt in the Commonwealth for the first time in its history.  Amendments were added to the bill, but nothing was done to address the excessive interest rate and predatory terms of the payday loan product.   The amended bill does nothing to stop the debt trap and allows 300% interest rates to flood into the state over the internet and in store fronts. 

The committee passed the amendment despite growing opposition from Pennsylvanians around the state, and despite a letter from the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society that stated the amendments to HB 2191 did nothing to mitigate the already harmful aspects of the bill. 

Here is information about HB 2191 as it now stands:
- HB 2191, as amended, Quick Facts
- HB 2191, as amended, Doesn't Stop the Debt Trap

For a quick recap of the hearing (which was not recorded and held in a small, standing room only room) and a debunking of the arguments made the, please see this post by Mark Price at the Keystone Research Center.

Please thank Rep. Parker, Rep. Jesse White, Rep. Neuman, and Rep. DePasquale for standing with millions of Pennsylvanians and voting against 300% interest rate payday loans.  And, continue contacting your own legislators to let them know you oppose this bill. Click here to take action today!

In the last few weeks, mounting opposition to predatory payday loans as grown across the state.  Meanwhile, payday lenders are hoping to move this bill as fast as possible, hoping we won't notice. HB 2191 is scheduled for a committee vote this Wednesday at 10:15 a.m.  Click here to tell your legislators today that 300% interest loans are unacceptable and certainly won't go unnoticed.

Here is what we mean by growing opposition. 

Just this morning, the Harrisburg Patriot-News Editorial urged legislators to reject HB 2191:
            If his bill passes, Pennsylvania will have businesses such as “Cash N Go” and “Cash America” in most strip malls
            and street corners in poor areas of town. Some say it will bring jobs, but at what cost? We’re likely talking about minimum
            wage jobs to charge outrageous interest rates on fellow citizens who are desperate for money. That’s not job
            creation,that’s community destruction. 
    
            It’s just like the mortgage lending mess. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Perhaps Pennsylvania lawmakers have
            forgotten how the payday loan industry used to target the U.S. military. It got so vicious that President George W. Bush
            signed a law in 2006 forbidding loans to servicemen and their families above 36 percent because the 400 percent
            plus loans were so devastating to our military. Is this the industry we want to invite into Pennsylvania to target our low
            income populations and elderly? 

           There will never be enough protections on a person getting a 400 percent loan. All it does is make a bad financial situation
            worse once these lenders get first priority to people’s bank accounts. Pennsylvania would have to be crazy to invite the 
            payday loan industry into our midst.

Last month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the same thing - that legislators should reject HB 2191
            Mr. Ross argues in a memo that HB 2191 has "the strongest consumer protections available in other states that regulate
            the practice." Sounds like the same assurance foxes give farmers before prowling the henhouse.

            Fortunately, eight legislators who originally supported the bill have withdrawn their backing upon further study of the plan.
            With borrowers carrying record levels of debt and too many people without jobs, this is no time to increase the
            financial burden on Pennsylvanians.

These media voices join the growing chorus of Pennsylvanians across the state opposing predatory payday loans at 300% annual interest rates.  View the full list of opposition here, and note its diversity of stakeholders - veterans groups, United Way, faith-based organizations, credit counseling agencies, community development financial institutions, and more. 
 
Last week, representatives of Pennsylvanians opposing HB 2191 testified at a public hearing - AARP, Action Housing, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Pennsylvania, and Community Legal Services.  The only people who showed up in support of HB 2191 was an out-of-state payday company and out-of-state consulting firms which conduct studies paid for by the payday lenders.  For a great recap of the hearing, see this article in the Allentown Morning Call, in which after attending the hearing, the reporter concluded: 

        Our leaders think the way to stop what seems to be a relatively small problem is to expose the greater public to the potential
        hardships of payday loans by permitting lenders to set up shop in poor cities like Allentown....I agree that working-class
        families may not have many options for getting fast cash or paying emergency bills, but I don't see payday loans as the
        answer.

Despite this growing opposition - or perhaps because of it - the payday lenders are seeking to move this bill as fast as possible.  We must act now to urge our legislators to vote against it.  The bill is scheduled for a vote in the Consumer Affairs committee, this Wednesday at 10:15 a.m., please contact your legislators today to tell them to reject HB 2191, reject 300% interest rate loans.

Last week, a broad diverse group of stakeholders from throughout the Commonwealth voiced their opposition to the abusive loan practices authorized by HB 2191.   See the opposition letter.  The opposition to these payday loan practices includes many people who understand that interest rates of 300% or higher will only hurt Pennsylvanians, not help them.  

The debt trap caused by these high-cost loans due in full on a borrower's next payday are not mitigated by purpoted "protections" such as renewal bans, cooling off periods, or databases.  In states with similar provisions, borrowers remain trapped in 9 payday loans on average, and payday business model remains dependent on borrowers stuck in the debt trap (76% of payday loans are due to repeat borrowers).  Learn the reality behind payday lenders' claims.

The best solution to the harms caused by these predatory loans is to uphold and enforce Pennsylvania's long-standing existings law.  It allows small dollar loans to carry an interest rate as high as 24% annually.  Loans made above such rates are illegal, regardless if they're made on line or at a storefront.   As such, Pennsylvania's law effectively prevents these predatory lending practices and as a result, the state saves its residents $233 million a year.  Read more about payday loans in Pennsylvania.

HB 2191 is not consumer protection. If it passes, consumers and the state willl not be able to stop the debt trap.  

Now is the time to get involved.  Click here to add your voice today.