Senator who Owned Payday Loan Firms Seeks Changes in Industry

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

Now that he himself doesn?t own one, Alabama state senator Lowell Barron is proposing some pretty severe restrictions on the high-interest world of payday loans.

Everyone who isn?t a payday loan operation owner is lauding the proposal.

Barron?s proposal, according to the Associated Press, would:

• prevent lending companies from extending payday loans.

• establish a statewide payday loan database in the state Banking Department to prevent lenders from providing a payday loan to anyone who had one in the last 60 days.

• prevent payday loan companies from taking any direct or indirect interest in a person’s personal property as a result of a loan.

• prohibit payday loan and title loan businesses from operating within five miles of a military installation, from garnishing military salary or wages, and from collecting a loan from a military member deployed overseas for combat.