Times are tight, but don’t fall prey to payday-loan pandemic

IT’S dangerous, it’s destructive … and it’s about to explode, potentially infecting millions of people.

It’s a financial cousin of the coronavirus I’m calling the ‘Payday Lending Pandemic’.

This week, in homes across the country, people are stressing out about their finances.

The single mum who just had her waitressing hours cut and has no food in the fridge to feed her kids.

The small business owner who sits with his wife worried about how he’ll pay his loyal staff and make the rent.

There are many just like them, and they’re all terrified.

Yet there’s a small group of multimillionaire businessmen who are rubbing their greedy little hands with glee — payday lenders.

See, up until now they’ve preyed on the addicted and the sick, but this corona-crisis is about to open the payday loan market up to millions of brand-new customers.

I want to explain how dangerous and contagious this Payday Lending Pandemic is: payday lenders can legally charge their customers an outrageous 407.6 per cent per annum (not a typo) for a one-month loan.

And, while they’re marketed as ‘short-term loans up to $2000’, the reality is these loans are designed to put vulnerable people into a longterm debt spiral, where one loan is used to pay off another. And another. And another. After all, the payday lenders know that when all else fails they have a guaranteed payer: You.

Or, more accurately, Centrelink (which we collectively pay for through our taxes).

The payday predators can swoop in and snatch their clients’ Centrelink payments before they can spend it on food, medicine or schoolbooks.

And that’s exactly what they do.

Nearly five years ago, the Government launched a review into these predatory practices, which recommended a muzzle for the mongrels — the Small Amount Credit Contract reforms.

The lobbyists employed by the rich and powerful owners of payday lenders have kept the reforms so tangled in red tape there’s been close to zero movement. It’s time to wash our hands of this pandemic.

Tread Your Own Path!