Earn it, Keep it, Save it!! - Say no to payday loans!!

Eloisa Herrero

During the past several months the media around the world has covered the controversy surrounding Arizona’s New Immigration Law. Almost everybody has read or heard about it and probably everybody has formed an opinion about this law, either against or for.

However, I believe the media has failed to give enough coverage to a very important law that took effect on July 1st in Arizona, if they did I must have completely missed it.

Payday lending ended in Arizona on July 1, 2010. Arizona did it by cancelling the payday lenders' exemption to the state's 36% loan interest rate cap. This is a huge step towards protecting working families who are trying to get ahead.
Unfortunately, the outlook is not as good in Texas. Many families use payday loans as a last resort to meet their basic needs. For a two-week payday loan, people will pay more or less fifteen dollars for every $100 they borrowed which roughly represents a 390% annual percentage rate (APR)! Those who cannot pay off the loan on time often take a new loan to pay off the first one and soon they find themselves in a cycle of loans, which they cannot break.

I believe it would be a great idea if we could all ADVOCATE for a solution to this growing problem by urging the Texas state law makers to create stricter laws for the payday loan businesses.

By doing so we would help a lot of people in our communities to get out of debt faster, meet their basic needs, build assets and attain a better quality of life.