Comments (44) (Please sign in to comment)

1. 

   ConserveGov said, 6 months ago

   Well done. Legalized loan sharking. Vinnie on the corner would give you better terms.
2. 

   dtroutma said, 6 months ago

   Oh, while payday loans are outrageous, the era of “Reaganomics” made all banking and “investment” operations no better, just legalized Mafia.
3. 

   Clark Kent said, 6 months ago

   Payday loanshark operations are owned & operated
   BY the big banks. They keep that info hidden.
4. 

   omQ R said, 6 months ago

   @ConserveGov

   ‘Legalized loan sharking.’
   Here we are in perfect agreement.
   Shocking how they now litter the airwaves with their ads and the UK high streets with their rat-traps. Small businesses are closing left, right & centre but these guys (and off-licence liquor stores) open their operations in these especially blighted areas. They prey on the vulnerable and we allow them to. Absolutely astounding the rates they charge.
5. 

   saywhatwhat said, 6 months ago

   It is odd how what is allowed when it comes to separating the gullible (or vulnerable) from their money. In Germany there was recently a big uproar over how much some banks were charging customers when their accounts (what in the U.S. would be a “checking account”) are overdrawn. The interest rates they were complaining about were laughably low by normal bank’s U.S. standards and without any up-front “transaction fee”.
   .
   On the other hand there are legal gambling establishments on what seems like every corner (and in between) in lower income neighborhoods.
6. 

   Ms. Ima said, 6 months ago

   Every payday I give an enormous ‘loan’ to the government through the FICA tax. If I live long enough, they might pay me back.
7. 

   Ms. Ima said, 6 months ago

   @saywhatwhat

   Lesson learned: don’t write checks if you don’t have money in the bank. How hard is it? Simple math that should have been learned in school.
   As for ‘legal gambling’ have you seen the powerball? Half a BILLION dollars!!!! Windfall for the government and bait and switch for the winner.
8. 

   Respectful Troll said, 6 months ago

   It really angers me to see how many small businesses have closed and been replaced with these “Payday Loan” shops. Family restaurants, electrical shops, convenience stores, etc have been replaced with these shops that appeal to the most desperate and vulnerable in our society. I have written to my local and state politicians explaining why I feel these places do more harm than good, but no one has even sent me back a form letter in reply. I guess they have a strong lobby in my state.
   The cartoon shows a man about to be caught by a rat trap, but the rats are the business owners who staff these shops with people who are just slightly less desperate for a job than the people to who they give “loans.”
   This cartoon shows a sad symptom afflicting our states and I hope states will at least regulate these people aggressively.
   Respectfully,
   C.
9. 

   furnituremaker said, 6 months ago

   I’m surprised nobody mentioned credit cards
10. 

    Ennui_rudy Rutherford said, 6 months ago

    Our republican governor in Virginia approved the practice. What a sweetie. Of course he also provided $8M to the Washington Redskins to practice in Virginia but said the state couldn’t afford Medicaid for its senior citizens. Good thing he can only serve a single term
11. 

    Rockngolfer said, 6 months ago

    A certain business with a blue and yellow sign has an interest rate of 400% but I think some of the others are higher.
12. 

    mikefive said, 6 months ago

    @Respectful Troll

    I was assistant manager at a loan company for a few months many years ago. We were state regulated and could charge a maximum of 18% APR. At that time, banks normally charged 8%. (I don’t know what the max the banks could charge) These payday loan places typically charge 650% APR. Those kind of rates used to be called usury and were illegal. It would be interesting to find out why the government decided to legitimize “Vinny on the corner” and allow him to open a store front.
13. 

    I Play One On TV said, 6 months ago

    Here in Virginia, the legislators who voted not to force reasonable maximum interest rates on payday-loan companies cited two reasons for not wanting to “compromise” the practice: one is that it might be the only available money, (and we wouldn’t want to take away a person’s chance to owe much, much more than he borrows), and the other is that we might lose those jobs to other states. See if you can guess which political party those people belong to.

    And to elaborate on Ennui-Rudy’s post: be ready. Governor McDonnell is likely to run for president in 2016. Keep in mind that this is a person who ran on relieving transportation issues, and did not introduce any plan until the last year of his term. Now he is advocating for tolls on interstates as his only solution. Also note that he professes a “surplus” every year, and has accomplished this by reducing legally-required input into the state teacher’s retirement fund, and having them pay the difference with their new raise, which is coincidentally just enough to pay what the state did not. Also, he has instituted a policy where localities are billed for items that the state has decided it didn’t want to pay for. Follow the queen, round and round she goes…….you have been warned.
14. 

    1opinion said, 6 months ago

    @Ms. Ima

    “Every payday I give an enormous ‘loan’ to the government through the FICA tax. If I live long enough, they might pay me back.”
    It’s an insurance policy. Treat it as such.
15. 

    THEVIC IOUSDOUG MARTIG said, 6 months ago

    @1opinion

    “Every day, blah, blah, blah!” I feel your “Pay’n” (Pun intended!) for most of forty five years I (Voluntarily ?) paid to that insurance scam and all I got was like a two week pay due to an workplace accident, which at that time was like $240.00 total, Me thinks that someone else benefited more from me “Pay’n” nonetheless I says Let bygones be bygones,
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