From Christianity Today:
How faith-based nonprofit Grace Period is turning the tide on predatory lending.
To a hardworking mom facing a cash crunch, a payday loan can seem like awfully good news—the chance to borrow some money in advance of a paycheck that is days or weeks away. But when that paycheck actually arrives, paying back the loan is often out of reach—the average payday loan customer renews their loan nine times, paying new fees each time. The Center for Responsible Lending has found that the average customer with a $300 payday loan will end up paying $500 in interest and fees, plus the original loan amount.
You would think a business like that, charging effective interest rates that can range north of 400 percent per year, would have trouble attracting customers. In fact, the market is huge—the United States hosts more payday lending stores than Starbucks and Burger Kings combined.
But a Pittsburgh-based organization wants to provide an alternative.
