LANSING, Mich.–Efforts by credit unions in Michigan and the Michigan Credit Union League to help fight payday lenders in the state were highlighted in an op-ed in the Lansing State Journal.
Authored by Amber Paxton, director of the City of Lansing’s Office of Financial Empowerment, the piece highlighted the cost to one borrower of a payday loan that had an interest rate of more than 300% that forced the same borrower to take another loan in order to help pay the first.
Paxton noted that that person was eventually rescued by a loan from Lake Trust Credit Union.
In Michigan there are nearly 600 payday lending storefronts that each make about 3,000 loans per year, according to Paxton, who pointed to two bills in this year’s legislature that would have loosened the reins on payday lenders but which were defeated.
Paxton said her office, along with the Michigan league and the state’s CUs have been working to help Michiganders to escape the payday lending cycle. She also pointed to CASE Credit Union, One Detroit, and AAC CU as offering specific payday loan alternatives.
The op-ed can be found here.