Subprime Lending

Dallas Is About To Have Access to a Pretty Cool Payday Loan Alternative

In a couple of weeks, people in Dallas running a little short will have access to small loans that aren't accompanied by usurious interest rates -- provided their employer opts in to a new program from a nonprofit called Business and Community Lenders of Texas. The Community Loan Center of Dallas w ... More >>

Texas Cities Follow Dallas' Lead and Stand Up to Payday Lenders. Is the State Next?

In Dallas, the political atmosphere for payday lending reform is optimistic. After three years of ordinances limiting lending practices, the local movement has spread to 17 other cities across the state. Today, Dallas City Councilman Jerry Allen went before the Amarillo City Council to try and recru ... More >>

Wendy Davis Endorses...Dallas Dentist David Alameel's Doomed U.S. Senate Bid?

State Senator Wendy Davis' campaign has experienced a couple of hiccups in recent weeks. Her attack on rival Greg Abbott for being in the pocket of payday lenders backfired after her campaign grossly miscalculated the industry's contributions and neglected to mention that she had previously voted f ... More >>

Payday Lenders Are Using Texas Prosecutors to Collect Their Bad Debts

The payday lending industry in Texas has managed to wrap its tentacles around just about every level of government there is, repeatedly killing any move toward meaningful regulation on the part of the state legislature, skirting rules set up by municipalities, Dallas included, aimed at curbing its w ... More >>

John Carona's Payday Lending Reform Crashed into a Wall of Lobbyists Today

If you want an idea of the near stranglehold payday lenders have on the Texas Legislature, the Senate floor was the place to be today. That's where Senator John Carona watched as his payday lending bill was picked apart by colleagues, many of whom were taking calls from industry lobbyists as he spok ... More >>

Legislators and Lawmakers Have Killed Meaningful Payday Lending Reform

There remains a pressing need for meaningful, statewide regulation of payday lending in Texas, since the industry has shown a willingness and ability to skirt restrictions passed by Dallas, Austin, and other cities. Those reforms look like they are still at least a couple of years off. Despite high ... More >>

Dallas Unite! Throw off the Chains of Redneck Legislators, Payday Lenders, Etc.

Maybe Dallas has a shot at stepping out from under the redneck yoke of Austin after all. In today's news we see that a Dallas judge, Eric Moye, has tossed out a lawsuit by the usury industry in which payday lenders claimed the city had no right to protect its citizens if Austin didn't want them pro ... More >>

Payday Lenders Have Found a Big Loophole in State and Local Regulation

A few weeks ago, the Texas Observer's Forrest Wilder went on a journalistic mission to a Cash Store outlet near his home in Austin. His aim, as he describes it, was to see what it was like to take out a payday loan in Texas, particularly in the wake of stronger regulations that Austin recently put i ... More >>

Time For Ron Washington to Stop Shilling For Ace Cash Express

If you watch a Rangers game on TV for more than about five minutes, you're bound to encounter manager Ron Washington telling you wonderful things about Ace Cash Express. If you can ignore the glare from Washington's shiny pate -- he often appears sans baseball cap, even though he is a man who benefi ... More >>

Uptick in Crimes Against Elderly, Payday Lenders Tarnish Some Locals' Golden Years

Via.​A disheartening report by the Dallas Police Department shows that crimes against senior citizens have increased in the past year, with rates for July 2011 15 percent higher than during the same time last year. Lieutenant Herbert Ashford presented the numbers at this morning's Senior Affai ... More >>

Before Council Takes Out a Payday Loan, Sneak a Peek at Possible New Regulations

​If nothing else, the timing's certainly good: Just three days after Mayor Dwaine Caraway branded mayoral candidate Mike Rawlings the "Payday Loan King" in a series of ads to which Rawlings later responded, the city council's Budget, Finance & Audit Committee is about to take up the subject of ... More >>

Mayor Dwaine Caraway Refers to Mike Rawlings As "Payday Loan King" in New Radio Ad

Photo by Sam MertenCaraway and Natinsky at the candidate's endorsement press conference last month​Moments ago, during Robert Ashley's show on KHVN-AM, an ad ran attacking mayoral candidate Mike Rawlings and his ties to Ace Cash Express -- though it never mentions Rawlings by name. The speaker: no ... More >>

Rawlings Responds to Caraway's "Payday Loan King" Ads, Discusses Tenure on Lender's Board

Photo by Mark GrahamMike Rawlings​Mike Rawlings called this evening to discuss, sort of, those ads in which Mayor Dwaine Caraway blasts the mayoral candidate as the "Payday Loan King," a reference to Rawlings's six-year stint on the board of directors of Ace Cash Express -- the very sort of high-i ... More >>

New Anti-Poverty Coalition to Demand Dallas City Hall Zone Payday Lenders Out of Business

​Been trying to reach council member Jerry Allen ever since yesterday; no luck so far. But we know where he'll be at 3 today: in the Flag Room at Dallas City Hall, standing beside Dr. Frederick Haynes and Rev. Gerald Britt at an anti-payday lender press conference on behalf of the Anti-Poverty Coa ... More >>

No Justice: We've Bailed Out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind Our Financial Collapse?

Dallas's Richard Bitner Explains the Subprime Mess to Jon Stewart

Poor and Pitiful

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The Big Squeeze

Thinking about taking out a payday loan? Think again, sucker.

Buzz

Silence is not golden; Feed the sharks