Pennsylvania Credit Unions Provide Payday Lending Alternative
By Keith L. Rolland, Community Developing Advisor
Cash-advance companies, also called payday lenders, offer loans to working customers whom require instant money before they get their next paycheck. Customers supply a check that is post-dated electronic bank account information as collateral when it comes to loan. The annual percentage rate (APR) of interest for a 14-day advance of $100 or $200 can be 460 percent at a payday lender.
There are many more than 23,000 cash advance outlets nationwide. The amount has quadrupled within the previous 3 years. The loan that is payday reported significantly more than $40 billion in loan amount and built-up $6 billion in finance fees in 2005. In 2006, during an impasse over regulatory and legislative proposals to deal with payday financing in Pennsylvania, previous banking assistant A. William Schenck III challenged finance institutions to provide a product that is alternative. The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA) plus the Pennsylvania Treasury Department worked closely together to create such an item. *