OK. I don’t know that for sure, but these men of God sure don’t like them.
Several pastors from Dallas are challenging payday lenders, alleging that car title and payday lone businesses target disadvantaged neighborhoods and cripple those communities.
I cringe each time one pops up in Lake Highlands, because it seems like a quick solution for desperate people that results in bigger problems down the line. A quick Google search shows at least a dozen Loan Star Title Loans and Texas Car Title and Pay Day Service storefronts in the 75243 zip code— that zip, of course, includes some of Lake Highlands’ more troubled areas such as the high-density/high crime Forest-Audelia area. Pastor Fredrick Haynes of the Friendship West Baptist church in West Dallas told NBC 5 that, “a payday loan store is just like weeds in the midst of a beautiful garden that we’re trying to create.”
I haven’t had personal experience with these types of lenders, but I’ve read some stories about the vicious cycle they can create. Interest rates on a payday loans can reportedly reach 400 percent, and that can’t be good.
