Payday lenders still soaking Ohioans as reform bill languishes

Some people get better service than others at the Statehouse. In 1995, in just 65 days - whiplash-fast - Ohio's House and Senate legalized payday lending. And today, Ohio payday loans are the nation's costliest, "with a typical annual percentage rate {APR} of 591 percent," according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

A first try at reform, in 2008, was checkmated by a loophole. Now there's a second attempt at payday loan reform underway, but it's stuck in an Ohio House committee. Although it's been roughly three months since Reps. Kyle Koehler, a Springfield Republican, and Michael Ashford, a Toledo Democrat, introduced their House Bill 123, it hasn't gotten a committee hearing.

Koehler and Ashford's proposal caps, at 28 percent per annum, the interest rate on payday loans; limits monthly fees to 5 percent (and permits fees only on the first $400 borrowed, i.e., a maximum of $20 per month); and bans monthly payments greater than 5 percent of a borrower's monthly gross income.

The Pew trusts support the bill and estimate it could save Ohio borrowers $75 million a year.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/06/payday_lenders_still_soaking_o.html