Monday, 22 November, 2008
Despite tough times, Iowans want to do the best for their families. You can start the New Year right by avoiding debt this holiday season, particularly high interest payday loans that may charge more than 360 percent interest.
Lending someone money at 300 to 400 percent interest is not a service. It’s a rip-off and should be illegal in Iowa, just as it is in other states.
Payday loans are promoted as short term fast cash advances that a borrower can repay when they get their next paycheck. The borrower receives the amount of the loan minus a fee for the payday loan company. When payday rolls around, the borrower repays the money or renews the loan by paying the lender’s fee again.
Unfortunately, what’s promoted as a short term loan for emergency situations is actually an extremely high interest burden for most Iowa payday borrowers. Data from the Iowa Division of Banking indicates that Iowa payday loan borrowers lead the nation by taking out an average of 12 loans per year per payday loan store. The effective annual interest rate on this sort of repeat borrowing can top 300 to 400 APR.
I believe we should reform Iowa’s payday loan industry by limiting interest rates to 36 percent APR. This is the same commonsense consumer protection that Congress has already extended to our military families.
Fewer deaths in Iowa due to drunken drivers
Next to Utah, Iowa has the second lowest percentage of traffic deaths involving a drunken driver, according to a recent Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) report.
Democratic and Republican legislators know that all Iowans want alcohol-impaired drivers off our roads. We’ve made good progress toward that goal, as the recent MADD report attests.
Iowa’s success in reducing alcohol related traffic deaths is due in large part to the Legislature’s efforts in recent years. In 2003, Iowa lowered the blood-alcohol limit for driving while intoxicated to .08. Any person convicted is required to undergo a substance abuse evaluation at their own expense and to follow the recommendations of the evaluation.
Iowa also has one of the toughest ignition interlock laws in the country. Ignition interlock devices are attached to a vehicle’s starting system and detect alcohol on the breath of the driver. These devices are required for many OWI offenders. If a driver has a blood-alcohol level is higher than .02, the vehicle cannot be started.
Source: clintonherald.com
