Letter to Editor Supports Column, Virginia Ban on Payday Loans
By J.J. CameronPayday Loan Writer
Last week, we talked about an editorial in The Daily Press that found irony in payday loan robberies; the author wanted the cash advance practice to be banned outright in Virginia.
Now, a letter to the editor of the same paper backs up Tamara Dietrich's column. As we'll paraphrase, at least one reader feels just as strong regarding the issue of payday loans in the state:
Lobbyists have won big in this effort to rip off as many folks as possible without any legal consequences to themselves or the loan sharks they represent. Just look around; no fax payday loans have to be the fastest-growing business in the commonwealth.
Soon, every vacant building in town will house one of these General Assembly-sanctioned thievery shops. As Dietrich points out, doing the same act of robbing someone using a gun will land you in jail. I certainly agree with her and several of our General Assembly members that this unholy rip-off of our citizens must stop.
Charging over 300 percent interest to anyone is downright criminal, and that is what Del. Glenn Oder and others started out to stop, only to be sidetracked by legislative maneuvering that will water down the intended bad credit payday loan bill to a meaningless token act that is just as criminal as the original legislation.
I use the word criminal because it is just that, and the General Assembly needs to be held accountable for such destructive legislation. Allowing the Payday Loan Act to stay on the books in Virginia is an outright act of defiance by the General Assembly.
It is time for legislators to start listening to the public and stop catering to the lobbyists. It's a pity that it likely will require that massive push from the electorate to trigger such an act (the repeal of the aforementioned act) of moral fortitude from our representatives. But whatever is needed to put an end to payday advances in the state.
Roy Dunkum Jr., Newport News
