Payday Loans - What's Going on With Them?

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The APR, the annual interest rate paid for a two week $300 cash loan can reach over 600% on an annualized basis in Texas. The average payday loan borrower stays indebted for five months paying $520 in fees to borrow $375. City Bank doesn't want to be called out for making 500% annual fees off the poor. There's not a lot of competitive pricing issues driving down prices because people are desperate.

RUFUS GRISCOM: Could you share with us your broader mission and how your new book, “Poverty, by America,” supports that mission?

MATTHEW DESMOND: I want to end poverty. I want to be part of the movement that’s growing around the country not to treat it but to cure it, not to reduce it but to abolish it. And I say that because we can. We can, as a country, put an end to all this scarcity and deprivation in our midst.