Pawning your car

[trof]

Just saw a commercial for TitleMax.

Hey! You can bring in your car title and get a LOAN!
That part of your car loan that you've managed to pay off?
Well, looka here!
We'll lend you money on THAT and then you can start paying it off ALL OVER AGAIN!

I GOT MY MONEY AT TitleMax!!!

Poor. Stupid. Bastards.
Emphasis on poor.

[LSparkle]

1. OMG -- CAR equity loans!

This country is in some seriously deep shit ...

[sandnsea]

4. This isn't new

Been going on at least ten years. That an no money down car loans. If you miss a payment, they just repo and sell it all over again. They don't care. "Easy Credit Rip-Offs", they were singin' about this stuff on "Good Times" back in the 70's.

[ben_meyers]

7. You must not remember Dial Finance

This is nothing new, I worked for Dial back in the early 70's. Car titles and HHG's were standard fare.
Office managers were taught to tie up everything when making loans. If you made you payments we would call every month asking if you needed more money, if you were late we would re-fi, you could almost ever get paid off. Still going on? Dial was bought out in the 80's and is now known as Wells Fargo Financial.

[sandnsea]

14. What was the interest?

They're charging like 300% interest these days. As bad as those loan places were, I don't think they were as bad as the title loans and paycheck loans today.

[flvegan]

2. My county actually outlawed this after a few years of their predation.

[sandnsea]

3. Poor. Desperate. Person.

emphasis on desperate.

[TahitiNut]

5. Is it any wonder that we have an 'all vounteer' military?

How can anyone doubt the desperation of those without health care or a path to higher education and/or training?

When we, as a society, begin to depend on such conditions to have a military without a draft, we are truly, deeply fucked. Why? Because we tend to perpetuate such conditions for the 'benefits' we collect.

[mr_hat]

8. Rich Man's War

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world

Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war...

- Steve Earle

[TahitiNut]

9. Isn't it GREAT that 80% of us can share in at least one of the privileges of the rich?

:shrug: Yep. Fuck the (growing) 20%.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

21. I *really* like Steve Earle

And I haven't heard that one.

Checking it out now..

[mr_hat]

23. It's on "The Revolution Starts Now." Jonathan Demme >

directed the video of the song - here's the link:

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1116848451&fr=

edit: punctuation (again - lame)

[tbyg52]

6. It's terrible what's being done to people on the fringe.

It *should* be a crime....

[RB TexLa]

10. A loan secured by a car should be criminal?

why?

I know these loans may not always be the wisest decisions people make, but a crime?

[sandnsea]

13. Loan Sharks

Are you familiar with the term? What do you think of loan sharks?

[RB TexLa]

15. loan shark - someone who lends money at excessive rates of interest

Every transaction of money is valued by the need it serves. If someone can't get a loan by better interest rates, such as a credit card and they have to have money a high interest rate short term loan is not a bad thing. Yes 685% APR is excessive, if you take the year to make it an Annual PR, if you pay it back in 14 days $20 for it might be worth it and a wise decision if it keeps your electricity connected.

A good friend just had to use a payday loan, she borrowed $150, paid her electricity bill and the next week paid back $165, had she waited until she got her paycheck she would have been without electricity for 6 days and have to pay a $20 reconnect fee so she saved $5.

[sandnsea]

17. So why not cap them

You used to be able to go into HFC and get that same loan on a revolving credit line. Arkansas used to have an interest limit of 10%. Why can't we go back to that, instead of these loan sharks? It doesn't have to be this way. We really don't have to have an economy based on how badly you can fuck over your neighbor.

[RB TexLa]

20. And people would make loans of $150 for 7 days and collect 28 cents interest?

People who use short term lending wisely aren't going to find many people willing to loan them money for a quarter.

[sandnsea]

22. revolving credit lines

I guess you missed that. Get an emergency loan and pay it back over a few months. Yes you pay a bit more interest, but you also don't get in a repetitive cycle of running out of money before you get your next paycheck so you have to back and borrow again.. and again.. and again...

[JNelson6563]

24. "Shylock"

Bastards.

[tbyg52]

19. The tactics they use and the usurious (quaint concept) interest they charge, yes

I'm just re-reading a book called _Shortchanged_ about this.

http://www.amazon.com/Shortchanged-Life-Fringe-Economy-Currents/dp/1576753360/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-2766860-9145555?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187917082&sr=1-1

[Sapere aude]

11. People who don't have enough to live on should not borrow because it

give another person claims on their pay checks.

It took me a long time to see that.

[sarcasmo]

12. In a bad economy these predatory lenders prey on the poor.

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. They do it in a good economy, too. n/t

[DemoTex]

18. And then there is Rent-A-Center ..

Get a $30 lamp, rent-to-own, for $300.