The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "payday loan" ...
-
Pay Day Lenders Skirt Law
The story revealed how a high end race car driver who is also a convicted felon is partnering with an Indian tribe to run a multi-million dollar payday loan business. By partnering with the tribe the lenders do not have to follow any state laws. The lender is currently under multiple investigations by attorneys general.
Tags: payday loan; Better Business Bureau; property tax records
-
Social Insecurity
Corporate America has turned conventional uses of Social Security and pensions upside down, in some cases harming elderly and disabled retirees and in others helping to enrich Wall Street executives.
Tags: social security; pension; retiree; Wall Street; elderly; disabled; loan; executive; taxes; bank; payday
-
Serious Interest
Karen Spiller investigated short-term payday loans in New Hampshire, the only New England state that doesn't cap interest rates and thus allows them to sometimes soar as high as 500 percent.
Tags: short-term loans; payday loans; Advance America; interest rates; Check 'n Go; money
-
Trapped for Cash
In Utah the "payday loan" industry is flourishing. These payday loan stores intentionally trap and drain those people desperate for cash. The industry is growing exponentially in areas that are poor, heavily Hispanic or near military bases. Utah banks and credit unions' campaign donations keep the legislature from puting limits on interest rates.
Tags: payday loans; interest rates; poverty; Utah; Hispanic; military
-
Borrowing Trouble
This series looks at how corporations like Payday America use payday loans to target the poor and charge phenomenal interest fees. These stories also look at how traditional banks have helped to keep these businesses going, acting as the main source for business loans for payday lenders. At the same time, these banks are pulling their own branches out of lower income areas and violating the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 by not "serving the credit needs of all communities where they operate, including low- and moderate-income communities." Another story looks at RALs, or Refund Anticipation Loans from places like H&R Block, which also rack up interest rates and fees of 70-700 percent.
Tags: refund anticipation loans; loans; payday loans; Payday America; check-cashing businesses; Community Reinvestment Act; H&R Block
-
Matter of Interest
This three-part series investigated payday loan stores that offered high-interest, short-term loans. A reporter took out loans at these stores and found that fees and interest charges ranged from 390 to 890 percent. These stores target low-income residents and were widely unregulated.
Tags: payday lenders; debt; loan; interest; stop 'n' cash; cash money; regulations
-
'Easy Money': Georgia's payday-loan industry. Borrow $750, pay back $4,284. Critics say high-interest lenders growing fast by targeting desperate, low-income borrowers.
"Payday lenders are doing a big, high-interest, unregulated and possibly illegal business in Georgia by exploiting desperate, low-income borrowers."
Tags: payday; loans; high-interest; low-income; borrowers; banks; quick cash; scams; illegal; business; money; financial industry
-
Risky Business: Exploiting a Loophole, Banks Skirt State Laws on High Interest Rates. 'Payday Loans' are a big hit with many consumers, but regulators cry foul. Annual fees can top 500 percent.
Article explains how payday loans work. The story talks about people who needed some quick cash from a payday loan center, but then regretted it later when they had to pay annual interest rates reaching anywhere from 200 to 500 percent. According to the article, "...payday loans--so-called because they typically must be retired by the next payday--have become one of the fastest-growing financial products aimed at U.S. consumers."
Tags: banks; payday loans; high interest rates; banking industry; quick cash; debt; consumers; annual interest rates; credit; bad credit; lenders; lending
-
Payday Profiteers
A Multinational Monitor investigation exposes the practices of the so-called "predatory lending," targeted to low-income workers. Some major findings are that payday loans' interest can reach up to 2000 percent per year, and that they can be rolled over more than 13 times for a 6-month period. The article examines different anti-usury state laws that ban or restrict predatory lending. The investigative package includes also stories on high-interest mortgages, car title loans and costly rent-to-own scams.
Tags: mortgage; banks; finance; loans; credit; customers; rent-a-center; the Associates First Capital Corp.; Citigroup; National Home Equity Mortgage Association; lobbying; credit unions
-
The Money Trap
The Post's four part series investigates the payday loan industry. Finds that payday lending is a growing financial service that offers short term, high-interest loans but many times at a high price.
Tags: loans; Ohio; high-interest