In Response to AR politicians fighting to ban payday loan services on the internet – I just really don’t get it. Dusty will you ban my credit card company from charging me $40 for being over when the first $40 late fee penalty was what put me over in the first place because they don’t process your payment when they say they will? Also, will you ask the traditional banks to start handing out small loans to us that need it when you ban payday loans? I’ll continue going to alternate sites, and I feel as if that’s our right! Nobody should be able to make the decision for us on whether or not we need to borrow money, and yes that’s a high APR, but when it’s to be paid back in 2-4 weeks how in the world can someone consider it APR anyway?
The following is as found on the internet – Attorney General Dustin McDaniel sued a pair of companies and their owner today for allegedly marketing illegal payday loans online to customers in Arkansas.
The suit names Arrowhead Investments Inc., Galaxy Marketing Inc. and Christopher Hodes.
McDaniel said contracts that Arkansas consumers provided to his office show the companies have loaned money to Arkansans at an interest rate of 782 percent.
“With the closure of more than 250 payday lending locations in Arkansas, the state’s consumers have saved millions of dollars in illegal interest payments,” McDaniel said in a statement. “I will not retreat from my pledge to eliminate all payday lending, whether it occurs at a storefront in Arkansas or over the Internet.”
In 2008, the attorney general’s office demanded payday lenders cease operations in Arkansas. A state Supreme Court opinion concluded the operations violated Arkansas usury law.
The lawsuit McDaniel filed today seeks to bar the defendants from offering or collecting upon high-interest loans in the state. It also seeks to cancel all such loan agreements and have all payments returned to borrowers.
A website for Arrowhead Investments Inc. listed a Salt Lake City, Utah, headquarters for the company. A call to a toll-free number listed went to an automated call center but no live person answered any of the options. Directory assistance had no telephone number for the address listed on the website.
A Kansas City, Mo., lawyer believed to represent Hodes had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.