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This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them. (www.propublica.org)

submitted 1 day ago by Pro@programming.dev to c/usa@midwest.social

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Wave of Lawsuits: Since introducing the Flex Loan in 2015, Tennessee-based lender Advance Financial has filed over 110,000 lawsuits against its borrowers.

High Interest and Fees: Flex Loans offer borrowers up to $4,000 at 279.5% interest, trapping thousands of people in debt that can land them in court.

Sidestepped Federal Regulators: Advance Financial lobbied lawmakers to create the new Flex Loan to avoid federal consumer protection regulations.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 1 day ago

The consequences of Flex Loans were predicted when the Tennessee legislature legalized them 10 years ago, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wanted to regulate products like Flex Loans when Congress created the agency in 2011. The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the CFPB are currently being reviewed by the courts.

Exploitation on top of exploitation.

[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

In a 2019 recording obtained by The Washington Post, Hodges told a payday lending industry group his political donations granted him better access to Trump. Hodges told the Post he was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump and never used his status to ask the Trump administration for help.

A Trump-appointed CFPB director rescinded most of the payday lending regulations in 2020.

Surely unrelated, someone with ties to the lending industry seems like an honest guy. Like a used car salesman, or a carnival worker on the boardwalk.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago

So the official interest is 24% per annum, but there's a 0.7% "fee" that applies daily based on the current balance.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Good thing we're focusing getting rid of 'illegal' immigrants and not loan sharks threatening and stealing from citizens.