SVDP Oregon Lobbies For Cap On Excessive Interest Rates

A bill that would protect low-income Oregonians from usurious interest rates is moving toward Senate approval, pushed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

House Bill 2871 would cap interest rates at payday loan shops and other fast-cash operations at 36 percent per year. That compares with some loans now carrying rates that can balloon toward 400 percent with unclear warning.

“The families we serve deserve better,” Maureen Sloan told a Senate panel last week. She chairs a St. Vincent de Paul Society committee that advocates for the poor before the government.

“I am concerned that the payday loan lenders are positioning themselves as saviors of the low-income Oregonians who come to them in time of crisis,” Sloan said. “Let me be clear, offering someone a 400-percent loan or giving someone the opportunity to put their only transportation to work on the line is not a solution to a family’s financial crisis. It is plainly immoral to sell the promise of easy money and quick cash knowing that the outcome is likely to be an even more profound crisis.”

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