Right now, payday and car title lenders are gouging customers with loans with interest rates of 300% and more. To stop this, some members of Congress have introduced the bi-partisan Veterans and Consumer Fair Credit Act, legislation (H.R. 5050) that would stop the debt trap by putting a 36% interest (APR) cap on these loans and extending the protections of the Military Lending Act to Veterans and all consumers. 16 states and the District of Columbia already have interest rates that are 36% or below. Our goal is to extend those protections to the rest of the country, and to shut the door on tactics that some high cost lenders use to evade existing state rate caps, and charge triple digit interest rates even where they are prohibited by law.
Of course, the predatory lenders who are making money from other people’s hard times want to be able to keep doing it, and they are lobbying hard against the bill. And too many members of Congress are still on the fence. We need your help to let them know that their constituents are watching, and think it is important to end the debt trap that costs people more than 8 billion dollars a year in interest and fees. A national rate cap to stop the debt trap is the right move.