Arizona Consumers Council

While payday loans should be on the road out of Arizona, unfortunately, recent activity at the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions suggests that other high cost loans are still parked here:    in the past several months, many payday lenders have been licensed to offer car title loans.    These loans, [...]   Read More →

When do payday loans become illegal in Arizona? Payday lenders have operated in Arizona under a law that ends on June 30, 2010. Under that law, payday lenders could make loans of $50 to $500 to borrowers on the basis of a paycheck, and charge 15% of [...]   Read More →

Good credit counseling can be a big help. Unfortunately, there are many companies who call themselves credit counselors, but do little more than charge you a significant upfront fee to give you information you could get yourself or, worse yet, to do nothing. A good [...]   Read More →

Here are resources and alternatives for consumers who are having trouble paying off a payday loan:  Try to make payment arrangements with the lender, such as offering to repay the principal amount of the loan.     Check to see if your payday lender is a member of the [...]   Read More →

As the sun sets on Arizona payday lenders this month, the Arizona Consumers Council will be helping consumers evaluate alternatives to payday loans. Not surprisingly, many companies appear poised to rush in and lend to the customers of payday lenders. Some of those companies will [...]   Read More →

Contact the creditor. Ask to delay payment until your paycheck arrives or set up a repayment schedule that stretches out payments. Many creditors would rather give you more time to pay off a debt. Some may even consider accepting partial payment, if it means they [...]   Read More →

With the down economy, you may be tempted by ads from companies that promise to settle your debts for 50 cents or less on the dollar. But beware, this claim is too good to be true: most debt settlement companies will siphon off your hard-earned cash, [...]   Read More →

Everyone who has watched TV has seen them: those annoying commercials that promise a free credit report. There are the hip young people singing about the problems they've suffered because they failed to get their free credit report from "freecreditreport.com." Of course, they haven't managed [...]   Read More →

Just last month, new rules that protect consumers who use credit cards went into effect.   While the rules in Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act mean that credit card users are generally better than they were before, credit card users won't get any relief from [...]   Read More →

Check out this video, produced by Ron Howard, in which actors who have played the presidents on Saturday Night Live advise another playing President Obama to clean up the financial mess they caused, and pass financial regulatory reform.  SNL 'Presidents' Push for Wall Street [...]   Read More →

The Arizona Consumers Council sent this letter to the Prescott Daily Courier, in response a letter from the Center for Consumer Freedom (an astroturf organization) that suggested that imposing fee caps on pay day loans will cut off a necessary resource. Dear Editor: In 2008, pay day [...]   Read More →

Consumers looking to get their tax refund more quickly should reject quickie tax refund loans offered by many tax preparation services.  While it might be tempting to take such a loan as part of a package that includes free tax preparation services, in reality, such [...]   Read More →

On Monday the House Banking and Insurance Committee decided not to discuss and vote on HB2161. The bill apparently will undo regulation on payday loans set to go into effect this year. Consumer advocates from Center for Economic Integrity, Center for Responsible [...]   Read More →

In a No More Loan Sharks press release for January 14, 2010, Arizonans for Responsible Lending and consumer advocates spoke out at the Arizona State Capitol against the abuses of payday lending, and the continued attempts by industry lobbyists to overturn Arizona [...]   Read More →