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Reformers take aim at payday loan rates.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

The Rev. Tom Dodd recalls the older parishioner who was living on Social Security and became mired in debt after taking out a couple of payday loans.

"I asked if I could come over and look at the paperwork, and I couldn't believe it," says Dodd, pastor at United Lutheran Church in Eugene. "She actually had one loan annualized over 1,000 percent. It took my breath away."

Would-be reformers are taking another shot at regulating Oregon's burgeoning payday loan industry - possibly via a citizen-referred ballot measure - and a growing number of them say they're coming at the issue from a religious perspective.

"We have a strong tradition against usury - the strong taking advantage of the weak," Dodd says. "To me, it's really a central example of how power is misused, and the faith community ought to stand with those on the short end."

But industry spokesmen say they're being unfairly demonized for providing a service that meets consumer demand. They point to the low number of consumer complaints - 17 last year amid nearly 750,000 loans processed in Oregon - as evidence of their value, especially to people who might otherwise have...

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