|
Payday lending: The dollars and the debate |
Rep. Harold Mitchell spent an afternoon last week passing out a new report on payday lending in South Carolina to his Senate colleagues.Mitchell, a Democrat representing Spartanburg, the corporate headquarters of chief national payday lender Advance America, hopes the Senate won’t put heavier restrictions on the industry when it takes up a bill the House passed last week. The bill would double the amount of payday loans a borrower in South Carolina can get to $600, but would restrict borrowers to one loan at a time.He even wants to testify on the industry’s behalf in the Senate.“We have had a decade of dialogue surrounding the issue of payday lending in South Carolina, with people saying this industry has denigrated the poor,” Mitchell said, explaining why he asked for the report.“And there I was. I knew the majority of people using the industry were not those who are characterized as being victims.”
|
