{"id":6328,"date":"2014-08-27T00:13:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T00:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/27\/yes-reel-in-payday-lenders\/"},"modified":"2014-08-27T00:13:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T00:13:26","slug":"yes-reel-in-payday-lenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=6328","title":{"rendered":"Yes, reel in payday lenders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Well, what do you know about that? Amarillo City Council is considering an ordinance that regulates payday lenders.<\/p>\n<p>The council had a public hearing today and another is set for next week.<\/p>\n<p>I do hope the council agrees to watch these lenders closely.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the provisions include limiting loans to no more than 20 percent of the borrower&#8217;s monthly income; auto title loans would be for no more than 3 percent of the borrower&#8217;s gross annual income or 70 percent of the vehicle&#8217;s value.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s about time the city took up this issue.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve long considered payday lenders to be only a cut &#8212; maybe two &#8212; above loan sharks. They prey on those looking for quick cash, those who&#8217;ve gotten themselves turned upside down financially. They charge significantly greater interest rates than, say, more <em>established<\/em> lending institutions &#8212; you know, banks and credit unions.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s equally interesting is that the <em>Amarillo<\/em> governing council is actually considering a government-mandated regulation. Our city long has employed a hands-off attitude on these matters. Keep government out of legal private businesses&#8217; affairs, the mantra had been.<\/p>\n<p>An ordinance mandating a ban on indoor smoking? Forget about it. Businesses will do it themselves. Put the issue for a vote, the city decided &#8212; twice. Voters rejected the ordinance narrowly both times.<\/p>\n<p>Well, a payday lending regulation would help protect those who can become victims of those with cash to throw around while charging the borrowers a huge interest rate in return.<\/p>\n<p>I consider the City Council&#8217;s consideration of this ordinance to be a step forward for the cause of consumer protection.<\/p>\n<p>Enact the ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, what do you know about that? Amarillo City Council is considering an ordinance that regulates payday lenders. The council had a public hearing today and another is set for next week. I do hope the council agrees to watch these lenders closely. Some of the provisions include limiting loans to no more than 20 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=6328\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Yes, reel in payday lenders<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[288,3528],"class_list":["post-6328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-pay-day-lenders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}