Attorney Sues Wide Range of Online Payday Advance Lenders
By Paul RizzoPayday Loan Writer
West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has stopped 18 online payday loan lenders from doing business in the state. He’s also in the midst of suing 14 others that he says charge consumers annual percentage rates of between 600 and 800.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in Kanawha County Circuit Court, reports the Herald-Dispatch, McDowell lists 14 out-of-state companies that he says violate a West Virginia law that limits the annual rate to a maximum of 18 percent.
He wants to force them to do what the 18 other Internet payday advance loan lenders already have done. They agreed to stop offering payday loans in the state and to refund tens of thousands of dollars worth of illegal fees and charges collected from West Virginians.
Of course, payday loans are short-term loans or cash advances secured by postdated checks or by giving the lender authorization to debit the amount of the loan plus interest from the consumer’s bank account.
“Last year we launched a major initiative to combat companies that were using the Internet to circumvent the laws of West Virginia intended to protect consumers from usurious loans,” McGraw said in a prepared statement.
“Today we have sent a message that [payday cash loans] made to West Virginia consumers over the Internet must comply with our laws.”
