Arkansas Times

Arkansas Blog

« The race for Senate in Conway | Main | Tuesday talk »

Bloodsucker slouches off

A major payday lender/check casher/usurious bloodsucker is departing Arknasas, A.G. McDaniel announces.

Today, Advance America, Cash Advance Centers of Arkansas, Inc. advised that it will cease its business operations in Arkansas no later than October 31, 2008.  Advance America has been the largest provider of pay day loans in Arkansas for the last several years.

In March of this year, Attorney General McDaniel wrote Advance America, as well as numerous other pay day lenders, advising that their operations violated Arkansas law and must be discontinued.  Advance America responded with assurances that it would no longer issue loans in excess of the Arkansas usury limit.  Since then, there has been disagreement between Advance America and the Attorney General regarding the propriety of its ongoing practices. Nevertheless, Advance America has now determined that the efforts of the Attorney General, and the legal arguments supporting those efforts, mandate the closure of its Arkansas operations.

“This is a major victory for the consumers of Arkansas and a huge victory in our battle against predatory lending in Arkansas,” said McDaniel.  “The largest provider of pay day loans in the State has closed its doors, without litigation, in response to our efforts.  I hope the decision of Advance America will persuade all lenders that operate in violation of Arkansas law to shut down, ” McDaniel continued.  “We have worked with counsel for Advance America for several months now, and, although they don’t agree with our interpretation of the law, we applaud their decision to close their doors in Arkansas.  Now, we continue our efforts against those that still engage in illegal lending practices in Arkansas.”

Comments

Good riddance! They must have fearful of another press release or the real coupe de grace, a real live press conference starring Dusty McD. Must have had them shakin' in their money grubbin' boots.


Just imagine all the babies who will go to bed without formula.

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Campaign climate
Date: 2/4/2010
By: Paul Barton

A paper published by a think tank last month warned that Sen. Blanche Lincoln's ascendancy to the Agriculture Committee chairmanship was a bad omen for passage of climate-change legislation in 2010 due to her close ties to agricultural producers and processors seen as major contributors of greenhouse gases. /more/

Nurturing fiction
Date: 2/4/2010
By: Arkansas Times Staff

Last Wednesday, a column by Cathy Frye appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette under the headline "Mothers in Haiti Face Living Nightmare." But Frye has never been to Haiti. /more/


Return of Count Ed
Date: 2/4/2010
By: Arkansas Times Staff

Dracula can't stop biting necks and Ed Bethune can't stop debasing Arkansas politics. Persistence is but one of the traits they share. /more/

Home / Blogs / This Week / Entertainment / Ark. News Headlines / Multimedia / Classifieds / Subscribe / Contact