Posts Tagged ‘Laws’

Usury Laws, Anyone?

October 17th, 2011 Kevin Clark No Comments »

Every so often, talk of curbing excessive lending practices by instituting usury laws at a federal level resurfaces, and speeches are made, hearings are held and editorials are written, but nothing ever comes of it. This begs a couple of questions: For starters, what are usury laws exactly, and—perhaps more importantly—do we need them?

Usury laws are those that prevent high interest rates, and as a result typically garner popular support, especially in times such as these when the economy is fledgling and anger toward financial institutions is running high. How

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Tags: Laws, Usury Laws

New Bank Overdraft Fee Laws For Your Debit Cards & Checking Accounts

August 18th, 2010 Emily Young No Comments »

As of August 15th, 2010, there are new laws in place regarding overdraft fees from your bank. Up until that date, many banks and credit unions automatically enrolled customers in an overdraft service that could run as much as $35 each time you over-drafted your account. This service was there (in addition to padding the bank’s bottom line) to “protect you” from having your card declined due to having insufficient funds in your account. Granted, if they had just left the $35 IN the account, maybe you wouldn’t have gone over the limit, but still – this was an automatic enrollment and not something you could opt out of. Well, tha

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Tags: Laws, Overdraft Fee