The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is supposed to be protecting consumers. Instead, they just made payday loan debt relief harder and more unfair for consumers. The majority of payday loan borrowers are low income, live paycheck to paycheck, and often use the payday loans to pay for basic living expenses. These consumers need to be safeguarded against the giant lending institutions who are often not looking out for those already in a vulnerable position. As we pointed out in our blog last year, consumer protections for borrowers have been on the decline. This week the CFPB announced their plans to loosen regulations that had been put in place to determine if consumers have the “ability to repay” the money they borrow.
Payday loan debt relief and getting out of the payday loan debt trap is much harder for borrowers if they are set up to fail. And that’s exactly what is happening if the lenders have no legal obligation to see if the money they loaned has a reasonable chance of being paid back based on the borrower’s income and ability to repay the loan.
According to Yahoo Finance’s post, Consumer Watch Loosens Obama-Era Guardrails On Payday Lending, “Former CFPB attorney and University of Utah professor Christopher Peterson told Yahoo Finance that removing the ability-to-repay test puts borrowers at risk of triple-digit interest rate loans that they will not be able to pay back.
“[Trump’s] consumer protection agency gutted the consumer protection compromise laws that were designed to protect low-income families from predatory death traps,” Peterson said.”
As a debt relief attorney who helps consumers get out of payday loan debt, I see consumers continuously being taken advantage of by lenders. There is little recourse for borrowers to fight back against the big banks and lenders. Consumers taking out payday loans often live paycheck to paycheck and get stuck in the payday loan trap. According to the Consumer Federation of America “Consumers who use payday loans have an average of eight to thirteen loans per year at a single lender. In one state almost sixty percent of all loans made were used to cover the prior payday loan transaction; either through renewals or new loans taken out immediately after paying off the prior loan.”
Payday Loan Debt Relief Help
If you are stuck with overwhelming payday loan debt and want to see if a debt settlement is the right course of action to finally get out of the payday loan cycle, then contact us for a free debt consultation. We have offices in San Diego if you would like to meet in person. We also represent clients throughout the State of California. Give us a call at 844-729-4866 and we can go over your situation and see how I can offer you payday loan debt help.
Jonathan B. Haskett is a debt attorney serving clients in California and focuses exclusively in debt relief. He is licensed to practice in California. Mr. Haskett owns and operates The Debt Settlement Lawyer in San Diego, and helps people with debt problems all over the country, if possible. For more information, please contact attorney Jonathan Haskett at 844-729-4866, or jonathan@thedebtsettlementlawyer.com. or use our online contact form.