Comments on: Sen. Durbin’s Scheme to Rip Off Consumers

By: J.G.

J.G. — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:26:17 +0000

Today came the latest stage of this ongoing saga. Sen. Durbin’s calculations are correct, but what is his point? He accuses Wells Fargo of attempting to make a profit, “[i]nstead of making up costs.” Is Wells Fargo supposed to charge for its services just enough to cover its expenses? What about its shareholders’ interests?

But what Sen. Durbin doesn’t mention in his letter is that the lost profits from interchange fees that Wells Fargo is now looking for ways to make up for have not actually disappeared into thin air, nor are they being passed on to consumers. Far from it. The $7 billion or so in annual interchange fees that the Durbin Amendment is costing issuers, are now being collected by retailers and most of it – by big-box stores (e.g. Wal-Mart and Target). It is up to them alone to pass any portion of the windfall on to consumers. If you believe that this will happen, well, I have a news for you.

The bottom line is that we are now suffering through the entirely predictable side effects of the Durbin Amendment’s passing, for which everyone who was paying attention warned when it was first proposed. Sen. Durbin should stop bullying businesses for acting in their shareholders’ best interests.

By: reed hadley

reed hadley — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:13:27 +0000

To Whom It May Concern:
Your support of the 36% cap on consumer loan while well intended and surely needed to protect consumers against predatory lenders, is going to have a consequence that nobody realizes. Pawnshops will have to close because they make short term loans, (4 months in California) and a 36% cap would mean for every $100 loaned we would make $2.80 and if the person came back in 5 days they would owe $.50 cents. Our tickets to write the loans are $2.00, and then we have employees, rent, utilities, security, and many many taxes. Our customers are not Payday customers, to get a Payday loan you have to have a checking account, our customers have no checking accounts, and we are their banks. Our average loan is $80 for which we make $10 for 4 months. The Payday loans are $300 and they get $45.00 every 2 weeks. As you can see we are not predatory lenders. I have 6000 customers, and I am a small store. They will have no place to go.
Licensed and regulated Pawnbrokers who offer consumer credit secured by possessory security interest in personal goods provide safety-net pawn loans to approximately 30 million Americans. Each day, pawnbrokers help families through challenging economic times by providing non-recourse, short-term loans that have no impact on their credit history.
The pawn industry is a heavily regulative provider of consumer financial services. In addition to state licensure requirements and laws concerning the terms and conditions of pawn loans, we are subject to 12 federal laws. These federal, state, and, in some instances, local laws govern every aspect of pawn transactions including interest rates, loan duration, redemption methods, record keeping and transaction reporting requirements
I started a petition in my store and in 10 days have 2,500 signatures with comments about how they will have no place to go for money. There is a web site (Savemypawnshop.com) with 18,000 signatures. There is many times the number of people that use pawnshops that will be badly hurt by this then there will be people benefiting by such a law. I believe that Payday loans, Title loans and such should be capped but our politicians are not willing to make any exceptions to their bills. It is quite evident that no other financial services would be able to fill the void left by the disappearance of the pawn industry. If this was to happen it would mean the loss of tens of thousands of employee jobs, corresponding license and tax revenue for state and local governments and most importantly, the loss of a convenient, trusted, and vital credit option for consumers. There are no credit providers who can make an $80.00 non-recourse collateral loan at 36% interest per year. If you want to help the people who need it the most right now, help the people who depend on pawnshops to survive.
Thank You
Reed Hadley
Mission Jewelry & Loan
5138 W Mission Blvd
Ontario, CA. 91762
909-590-1399

By: ph is pretty hot

ph is pretty hot — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:31:27 +0000

I work in a pawnshop. We help lots of people get through the week like paying for gas and getting their groceries. The pawn shop I work for is a family owned buisness. This bill would put them out of buisness and all of us at the pawnshop would be unemployed.

By: Dmoney123

Dmoney123 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:38:53 +0000

Sen.Durbins bill will continue to strike at the heart of our country, continuing to eradicate the middle classes. His intentional leaving out of NSF and ODF should be considered criminal and should be a strong case for a formal congressional review. Corrupt politicians with big buisness in their pockets simply do not have a place in our history any longer. Our current economic situation proves that!

By: DurbinIsRidiculous

DurbinIsRidiculous — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:38:39 +0000

I don’t understand the politicians’ thinking with this one. Are they TRYING to cut people off from last-resort lenders? Do they WANT them not to be able to pay their utility bills, medical bills, etc.? Is it purely a political play with no regard given to people on the street? It just doesn’t make any sense…

By: khoury1967@aol.com

khoury1967@aol.com — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:46:49 +0000

Keep in mind, besides payday loan lenders you have lenders with monthly installments who lend from 160 to 4000. This helps consumers pay medical bills, automotive repairs, school costs, etc. for folks who have no access to credit due to former credit challenges due to divorce, medical, and Bankruptcy. Credit score is too low for a bank or credit union and they have no access to credit cards to hold them over. So what happens to these folks who are denied credit? Where will they get the money for their needs? The Durbin bill will keep the
folks down to a level of povery that we have not seen in some years. look for the crime rate to increase and job loss.