As they have several times in past years, experts who counsel vulnerable soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are speaking out against the expansion of predatory lending in North Carolina. Today, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society sent a letter to the General Assembly in which the group makes clear what a terrible idea it would be to re-legalize “payday” lending as is proposed in recently introduced legislation.

According to the letter (which is signed by the Society’s President, Retired Admiral Steve Abbot):

“The negative impact of payday loans on military readiness is profound, and the harm caused by these loans is significant; exhausting resources that could be used in other ways, and creating unnecessary hardship for military families (and others).” 

Click here to read the entire letter.

Well, that didn’t take long. Sensing with good reason that it’s now open season on struggling families at the North Carolina General Assembly, the predatory “payday lending” industry is already banging on the door on Jones Street seeking to have its parasitic industry (which was banned in the state in 2001) made legal once more in North Carolina. Senators Jerry Tillman and Clark Jenkins filed the bill yesterday and it will be formally introduced in the Senate today.

As we have reported repeatedly in this space over the years, “payday lending” is the pernicious practice of making short-term loans (typically of a week or two in length) to desperate people at effective annual interest rates of several hundred percent. Read More…