Legal Rate Of Interest
Categories: Credit, Ethics/Morals
See: Usury.
Usury laws (defining the maximum rate of interest that can be charged) are a state's rights thing, not a federal thing. Every state simply defines what that number is...and then lenders or members of that state must cap rates right there.
Why wouldn't you just let the market rule? Why not have rates be whatever the market will bear? Well, you can imagine desperate people, ignorant people, fraudulent people, doing all kinds of bad things to take advantage of a market that isn't all that easy to understand. Renting money is a tad more complex than buying a bunch of bananas. So states look out for their peeps, capping rates, and knowing that extremely high-risk would-be borrowers simply won't be able to borrow money, even if they're willing to pay 30% a year interest, because the laws in that state cap rates at 25%.
In a world of extremely competitive lending practices, however, if you have to be asking these questions about how high a rate a given individual or entity can borrow, something is clearly wrong with their credit or the risk profile, and there are probably a lot of other questions to be asked. Namely, "How'd they get to this bad place in the first place?"
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Finance: What are Payday Loans?25 Views
finance a la shmoop what are payday loans well this you want to stay away
from payday loans if you are so strapped for cash [girl gives out payday candy bar]
that you need to borrow money to pay the rent and you only have the promise of [hand takes money and leave I.O.U. sticky note]
your future paycheck to borrow against well something has clearly gone wrong [girl looking through papers]
along the way and you shouldn't trust the snazzy-looking television [TV add for loans]
commercials you're seeing out there a payday loan is a loan using the promise
of delivery of cash on your payday cheque as collateral and for most
companies loaning money on payday this is an extremely profitable business
because they quote only charge you 2% unquote for the loan but let's do the
math you're getting the cash two weeks early and last time we looked at a
calendar there were 52 weeks in a year or 26 bimonthly pay periods so if
they're charging you 2% to lend you money for one of those bimonthly pay
periods well their annualized rate that they're charging you for lending you
that money well that's 52 percent a year right 26 times 2% it's 52 percent a year
even the worst credit cards charge dramatically less than this rate of
interest so how do payday loan places get away with such high rent on your
hard-earned money well if you have to borrow money in this form with such
urgency well you're likely a very bad credit [woman sends man out to pay grandma]
risk and the perceived odds of you simply vanishing are well they're high [man gets into car with suitcase]
and the odds you are financially unsophisticated are almost by definition
certain because if you did do the math you get even an expensive credit card to
float you the thousand bucks or whatever your paycheck was or five hundred
dollars for that half month period to just get by until the next month right
so if you ever find yourself needing a payday loan let's hope you can work a
few long weekends saving enough money so that you don't need these things anymore [man working on computer]
and next time well you know what they say stay in school [school kids collaborating on project]