Floridians for Responsible Lending

FLORIDA RATE CAP LEGISLATION FAILS TO PASS

Florida Senator Dennis Baxley and Representative Robert "Bobby O" Olszewski filed payday loan rate cap legislation for the 2018 Legislative Session: SB 642 and HB 555
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Learn more about predatory payday loans here.
Statement from Rev. Dr. Russell L. Meyer, Executive Director, Florida Council of Churches supporting a rate cap
Statement from Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson, Jr, Presiding Prelate, 11th Episocpal District of the AME Church supporting a rate cap

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE PASSES PAYDAY LOAN EXPANSION BILL

Outpouring of Opposition Fails to Break Payday Lenders' Hold on Florida Legislature as Payday Loan Expansion Bill Races to Governor
Press Release Here

Hear first hand what the Payday Loan Debt Trap is doing to our Florida families!

"I live on a fixed social security income from disability. Money is tight. I live modestly on what would be considered a poor person's life in this country with no car, very small old apartment etc. Sometimes something comes up like an extra medical expense or something needs to be replaced.
Taking out a payday loan and being on a fixed income, it seems that I can’t ever get caught up. If I take out $300 from a payday loan I now have an additional monthly expense because I can't payback the $300 plus a $30 interest and a $5 fee. When I do, the situation goes on for months, maybe a year, until the next "unforeseen" expense comes around. Then I max out my payday loan to the $500 limit. Now I have to repay and borrow back the $500 every month along with $50 interest and a $5 fee.
The situation I now find myself in could take less than a year to get into but it could go on and has gone on for years until help of some kind arrives and I can pay it off. It's easy enough to figure out that in ten months you pay the payday loan company more than the original loan.
I took out a loan every month, that's how it works. I would borrow $500 and payback $555 then borrow back $500 no sooner than 24 hours later because I can't afford to pay off the loan."

-Jim in North Central Florida

"A single mom came for help because [her lender] is foreclosing on her home. She's borrowing money from payday loan places to get through the week -- she's not living paycheck to paycheck because there isn't a paycheck left by the time she gets one. She lives with her two sons, her daughter, and her nephew. Her daughter is working at a fast-food restaurant to save for a high school graduation ring. The women broke down crying in my office when I told her that the money her daughter is earning needs to be used to get the family out of debt. I advised her that she also needs to ask her 15 year old son to get a job as well. Then she and I went into detail about the heirloom jewelry she may be able to sell to bring herself current on her payday loans. If she can scrimp enough to get out of the payday loan death spiral, then she and I may be able to work out something with Habitat for Humanity. If not, she and the children she cares for are going to be homeless."

- A legal services attorney describing a single mom client

“[Client] used a payday loan of $400 to pay her rent after she made the decision to pay for glasses for her two young children. Her children were struggling in school because they were in need of glasses. [Client] did not have vision insurance and therefore had to pay over $300 for two pair of glasses. These glasses cost her more than $800 in fees to the payday lender and over $200 in late fees to her apartment complex. [Client]
borrowed the money from family to pay off the payday loan and paid the family member back over 8 months.”

-Employed single mom as told to her budget counselor