The Payday Playbook: How High Cost Loan Peddlers Fight To Keep Their Consumer Debt Traps Legal

Investigative reporter Paul Kiel writes in ProPublica:

• [O]utrage over payday loans, which trap millions of Americans in debt and are the best-known type of high-cost loans, has led to dozens of state laws aimed at stamping out abuses. But the industry has proved extremely resilient. In at least 39 states, lenders offering payday or other loans still charge annual rates of 100 percent or more. Sometimes, rates exceed 1,000 percent.
  
  Last year, activists in Missouri launched a ballot initiative to cap the rate for loans at 36 percent. The story of the ensuing fight illuminates the industry’s tactics, which included lobbying state legislators and contributing lavishly to their campaigns; a vigorous and, opponents charge, underhanded campaign to derail the ballot initiative; and a sophisticated and well-funded outreach effort designed to convince African-Americans to support high-cost lending.

For more, see The Payday Playbook: How High Cost Lenders Fight to Stay Legal.

This article is part of an ongoing ProPublica investigation: Debt Inc.: Lending and Collecting in America (How lenders tempt consumers with high-cost credit products that go far beyond payday loans).