Since North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Joseph Smith cracked down on payday lenders earlier this year, the high-fee lending chains have left the state. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates the ban on payday lenders in 2006 will save people from owing about $1.4 billion in excessive fees. The Raleigh-based nonprofit is an ardent critic of payday lenders and rejects claims that they provide credit options to consumers with no alternatives.
Here’s a breakdown of the projected savings, as the Center determined from regulatory data, financial reports and third-party analyses:
New York — $345 million
Pennsylvania — $234 million
North Carolina — $153 million
New Jersey — $150 million
Georgia — $147 million
Massachusetts — $119 million
Maryland — $97 million
Connecticut — $64 million
Maine — $25 million
Vermont — $12 million
West Virginia — $36 million
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2006.
