If you are desperate for $20 and $200, that probably means you or your kids are hungry or need medication to stay alive. Your friends at Square are here to help. Square's peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, is testing a new feature that offers loans between $20 and $200. You have four weeks to pay the loan back at 5% interest. If you miss the payment, you get a one week grace. After that, Square will add 1.25% interest every week. That turns out to be a 65% annual interest rate (fortunately non-compounding).
Square gets into the loan sharking business with 65% APR short-term loans
How New York taxi drivers were conned and bankrupted by medallion loan sharks
"I don't think I could concoct a more predatory scheme if I tried. This was modern-day indentured servitude." That's what Roger Bertling, the senior instructor at Harvard Law School's clinic on predatory lending and consumer protection told The New York Times about sleazy operators who hyper-inflated the price of taxi medallions (which allow you to… READ THE REST
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Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jointly introduced The Loan Shark Prevention Act, which will cap credit card interest rates at 15% (and closes the loopholes that lets credit card issuers exceed their stated APRs with the use of hidden fees) and which re-establishes American post-office banking. READ THE REST
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (previously) is practically the only US regulator we can be proud of — founded by Elizabeth Warren before she ran for the Senate, the CFRB is a consumer protection agency that has been at the forefront of reining in criminal activities like Wells Fargo's nationwide frauds and Equifax's dox attack… READ THE REST
Cyber Monday Extended: Win big with two copies of The 2 Million Dollar Puzzle for $40
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. This year, instead of giving to others, it's time to think of yourself. You can't be reliant on your goodwill alone to feel fulfilled, and cash can usually fill that void… READ THE REST
It's not too late to score Cyber Monday savings on this refurbished MacBook Air
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. Everyone needs a reliable machine for work, pleasure, or whatever else they do on their computer (your business, not ours.) However, with the holidays around the corner, we know cash is tight, and… READ THE REST
Didn't win Powerball? This Black Friday Doorbuster Deal might be your second chance.
We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views. If you're one of the millions of people who didn't win a Powerball, let us be the first to send our condolences. If you're anything like the rest of us, there's… READ THE REST
