In reply to Gavin.

Sorry but you think I misrepresented your position when I quoted your own statements? Really?

"I think there needs to be limits on PL due to the fact it is legal loan sharking and they prey on the poor and the needy. If they were smart they would open up small community banks and get low interest
loans to people in need and deal in volume and repeat then scamming people into debt." So instead of letting the marketplace determine what a fair interest rate for a payday loan is, you would rather people that are not in that business decide? I am sure that if they wanted or could be a community bank, they would be. There are plenty of community banks around but apparently they don't fill all of the need or else there would not be room for payday lenders. These lenders must be offering something that makes them an attractive deal for their customers. Maybe these customers can't qualify for community bank loans or they don't want to go through the time/effort of the loan process. Again, community banks already exists so if payday lenders have customers, it must be for a reason.

"The risk is only on the customer of a pay day loan and they do target POOR credit risk people for profit. I would, rather have someone that is a poor credit risk have NO option than a bad option". Wrong, the risk is on the payday lender. It is THEIR money that they are lending out. If the loan does not get repaid, they have to do through the collection process. If the lender had no risk, why didn't the customer go to a normal bank? Also, you would rather a person have NO access to emergency funds than have access to a payday lender. That is cold.

"Payday lenders are always a bad option due to the fact that it makes the poor people seek out bad high interest loans they know they can't afford." So you would rather poor people have NO access to funds verse what you consider a bad deal.

"I think banks need to use the HUGE excess in capital to provide small low interest loans like they used to do back in the day". It is fine that you think that but it is not YOUR capital. If you feel that strongly about it, get your own capital and make whatever loans you want at whatever rates you want.

Basically, I believe that consenting adults should be able to enter into whatever arrangement they want. In this case, payday lenders loaning money to people that want payday loans. As long as the terms of the arrangement are clear, who are you or I or anyone to say they can't do that?

Coming back to the start, people go to payday loan businesses typically because banks won't lend them money because they are a bad risk. The payday lender calculates the risk into the interest rate they charge and the consumer is free to accept the deal or walk away. Some walk away and some would rather have the money now to use now instead of waiting until the next payday. Is the interest high, sure. Would I want the deal? Likely not but if I really needed the money I would rather have the option then not have it.

By capping interest rates or other legal actions that make it harder for these businesses to operate simply remove an option from the poor people that this politician says he wants to help. A resource that was available will not be. What will replace it? Likely, nothing and then this same politician will be back next year making a speech about how poor people have NO access to loans and something must be done. All in the name of "helping".

So which of your positions have I misrepresented? You are entitled to your opinion just as I am. I do think though that those that have been selected to speak for us and to pass laws for us should know more about what they want to control to ensure they don't do more harm than good.