All Resources
Report
Broke: How payday lenders crush Alabama communities
Alabama Arise and Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice teamed up to produce this report on the history, financial effects and human impact of high-cost payday lending in our state. The report highlights and executive summary are below. Click here to read the full report, or click the "Download" button at the top of [...]
Blog
The CFPB should keep protections for payday borrowers
Borrowers across the country deserve stronger protections, not weaker ones. Unfortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently decided to reopen its 2017 rulemaking on payday lending. And that move would put the financial health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. The CFPB director seeks to eliminate a requirement for payday lenders to [...]
Fact Sheet
30 days to pay: A simple but important step forward on payday lending reform in Alabama
Alabama borrowers pay interest rates of 456 percent a year on payday loans. These high-cost loans trap thousands of struggling Alabamians in a debt cycle that deepens poverty and hurts the state’s economy. SB 75, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, along with a House version sponsored by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, would extend the [...]
News Releases
Medicaid expansion, end to grocery tax highlight Alabama Arise’s 2019 priorities
Medicaid expansion and legislation to end the state sales tax on groceries are among the top goals on Alabama Arise’s 2019 legislative agenda. More than 200 Arise members picked the organization’s issue priorities at its annual meeting Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, in Montgomery. The seven issues chosen were: Tax reform, including untaxing groceries and closing [...]
Fact Sheet
Payday lending reform: Ending a debt trap in Alabama
On busy highways and run-down streets across the state, you can’t miss them: big, bright signs promising easy money. From payday loans to auto title pawns to anticipation loans on tax refunds, Alabamians face a dizzying array of credit services designed to trap consumers in financial quicksand. This fact sheet highlights the pitfalls of payday [...]
Blog
Senate passes 30-days-to-pay bill that would help Alabama payday loan borrowers
Payday loan borrowers across Alabama would get more time to repay and collectively would save tens of millions of dollars a year under a bill that the state Senate passed 20-4 Thursday. The 30-days-to-pay bill – SB 138, sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur – now goes to the House. SB 138 would extend Alabama’s [...]
News Releases
Senate committee vote for ’30 days to pay’ was a good first step on payday lending reform in Alabama
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project executive director Kimble Forrister issued the following statement Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in response to a Senate committee’s approval of a bill that would give Alabama borrowers 30 days to repay payday loans: “Today’s Senate committee vote in favor of the ‘30 days to pay’ bill was a big win for [...]
News Releases
New CFPB rule on payday, title loans is a good first step that should prompt further action to protect Alabama consumers
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project executive director Kimble Forrister issued the following statement Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new federal rule on payday and auto title loans: “High-cost payday and title loans have sent far too many Alabamians spiraling into a long-term cycle of debt. The CFPB’s new rule [...]
News Releases
Medicaid funding, public transportation highlight Arise’s 2018 priorities
New Medicaid revenue and creation of a state Public Transportation Trust Fund are among the goals on Alabama Arise’s 2018 legislative agenda. Nearly 200 Arise members picked the group’s issue priorities at its annual meeting Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, in Montgomery. The seven goals chosen were: Tax reform, including untaxing groceries and closing corporate income [...]
Fact Sheet
SB 284 offers Alabama consumers protections from high-cost loans and moves lending reform forward
Most states have laws against usury, or excessive interest. Alabama’s Small Loan Act of 1959 caps the interest rate on traditional small, short-term loans at 3 percent a month, or an annual percentage rate (APR) of 36 percent. But more recent laws covering payday and auto title lenders allow APRs many times higher than that. For [...]