Group to Protest Payday Loans

A Wichita consumer-advocate group, Sunflower Community Action, plans a protest on Saturday against area payday lenders, according to a story running in the Wichita Eagle.

Payday loans have proven very unpopular with consumer-advocate groups. However, because of payday loan providers? specialized niche ? offering loans to those who can?t or don?t qualify for bank loans and personal lines of credit ? they do prove fairly popular with certain segments of the consumer population. At least at first.

“These sources of credit are ones that our customers have asked for,” Whitney Damron, lobbyist for the Kansas Payday Loan Association, said. “Our customers have been turned away by traditional lenders like banks and credit unions. Where do these people go to get loans?”

It’s easy, Damron said, for groups such as Sunflower to blame the lenders rather than the consumers.

You can read more about this story at Group to protest payday loans.