opinion
Say No to High-Cost Lending
“challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ErNIE F oStEr
Founder/Publisher
B oBBIE D orE F oStEr
executive editor
t ED B aNkS
advertising Manager
J Erry F oStEr
account executive
L ISa L ovINg
news editor
H ELEN S ILvIS
Multimedia editor
D avID k IDD
graphic Designer
m oNIca J. F oStEr
Seattle office Coordinator
J uLIE k EEFE
S uSaN F rIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
World Wide Web site:
http://www.theskanner.com
Fax: (503) 285-2900
the Skanner is a member of the
National
Newspaper
Pub lishers
Association and West Coast Black Pub -
lishers Association.
All photos submitted become the
property of the Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2011 the Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
knowing What’s
Important can
change your Life!
Subscribe to The Skanner –
don’t miss an issue!
Please sign me up for:
q 1 year $74
q 2 year $140
q New Subscription
q Renewal
________________________
Name
_________________
address
_________________
city
_________________
State
______
ZIP
________
Phone
Mail with check or money
order to: The Skanner
P.O. Box 5455
Portland, OR 97228
T
he New Year’s tradition of
making resolutions is some-
times an opportunity to turn
dreams into specific goals and
efforts - like losing pounds gained
during holiday excesses. When it
comes to financial matters, now is
a perfect time to also assess lend-
ing habits and ways to develop
greater financial security. In a
downturned economy, where jobs
are scarce and dollars are short for
many Americans, learning how to
keep a greater portion of your
monies is a resolution worth the
effort. If changes in consumer
financial habits can begin in the
New Year, chances are there will
be a big and better difference by
this time next year.
These changes can especially
benefit consumers with modest
incomes as well as those living on
governmental assistance and fixed
incomes. In fact, the fewer the
financial resources, the more
important it becomes to avoid
high-cost lending and derive
greater use of your own money.
For example, if your bank has
begun to charge service fees for
checking accounts, review the fine
print that announced those
changes. Payroll direct deposits or
maintaining minimum balances
may be available options that
could spare consumers pesky
monthly fees. If you earlier opted
r ESPoNSIBLE L ENDINg
Charlene Crowell
in for overdraft coverage, now is a
great time to opt out of it and the
accompanying average cost of $34
per transaction. Surveys have
shown that the vast majority of
consumers would prefer to have a
transaction declined rather than
incur these fees.
If your bank does not currently
offer these kinds of cost-savings
mates that one in five black house-
holds is unbanked and relies upon
fringe financial services to trans-
act their personal business. A sure
way for these consumers to begin
building savings would be to
avoid fee-based and high costs of
check-cashing services, pre-paid
debit cards as well as payday and
car title loans.
Typically, check-cashing servic-
es charge a percentage of the
check being cashed. As an exam-
ple, if a Social Security check of
$1,000 is cashed at a cost of
A New Year Resolution for Consumers:
Say ‘No’ to High-Cost Lending
options, it might be time to shop
around with area competitive
banks or credit unions. As non-
profits, most credit unions offer
lower rates than commercial
lenders. Lower rates and fees
translate into significantly cheaper
financing costs for major purchas-
es such as homes and vehicles.
Although bank and credit union
accounts are widely used, approx-
imately nine million Americans
have no bank account at all,
according to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation. FDIC esti-
$24.75, in a year’s time, the store
will take $297 from the recipient.
Even with a bank account monthly
service charge, the recipient would
keep more of their money. If a
bank or credit union charged $7.00
per month for an account or $84
per year, the difference the con-
sumer would keep is $213. That
amount of money could be better
used for utilities, groceries or even
savings.
Pre-paid debit cards, a growing
financial product may also be a
more expensive way to transact
personal business as well.
Whether offered online or from a
growing list of major retailers,
pre-paid cards frequently come
with multiple costs.
Beyond converting money into
plastic, activation fees are often
charged. If ATM use is allowed,
additional costs may be incurred
for using these conveniently-locat-
ed machines. Further, if a con-
sumer wants to ‘re-load’ the card
once original funds have been
depleted, another fee could kick
in. In short the fee totals deny con-
sumers full use of their own
money.
Perhaps the highest cost of
fringe lending occurs with payday
and car title loans. Each year, the
12 million Americans using pay-
day loans generate $4.2 billion in
fees alone. According to research
by the Center for Responsible
Lending, most payday customers
borrow an average nine loans per
year at 400 percent interest; 76
percent of these loans represent
repeat borrowing on the same
principal.
The 17 states and the District of
Columbia that have enacted a dou-
ble-digit rate cap on payday loans
have together saved their con-
sumers $1.4 billion in fees. While
Read the rest online at
www.theskanner.com
the Poor Campaign to Occupy the dream
T
he issue of income inequali-
ty in the United States
demands our attention and
social action. In particular in the
African American community, the
economic inequities are so real
and institutionalized; we are more
and more aware of how the devas-
tating impact of income inequality
continues cause a downward spiral
of the quality of life African
Americans and others who are
entrapped in the deep mire of
poverty, pain and hopelessness.
The dream of The Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. is just as
relevant today as we move into
2012 as it was back in 1963 at the
March on Washington.
Dr. King’s dream was the
American dream of freedom, jus-
tice and equality for all. Yet we all
should be reminded that by the
beginning of 1968, Dr Martin
Luther King Jr was very con-
cerned and focused on the ques-
tions of poverty and systemic eco-
nomic injustice. The Civil Rights
Movement, with the historic coali-
tion between the Black church,
organized labor, liberal whites,
Latinos, students and peace
activists, and many others from a
diversity of organizations, had
reached a transformative stage in
its evolution. The time had come
to expose and challenge the dia-
bolic connection between racial
injustice and economic inequity.
The
Southern
Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC)
under Dr. King’s leadership boldly
called for a “Poor People’s
Campaign” to plan a massive
“occupation” of Washington, DC
in 1968 to challenge the prevailing
and pervasive stranglehold of eco-
nomic injustice not only for Black
people, for all of “God’s chil-
Page 4 The Portland Skanner January 4, 2012
E DucatIoN
S ErvIcES
Benjamin F.
Chavis Jr.
dren.” Rev. Andrew Young at that
time was one of Dr. King’s most
trusted assistants. With respect to
the call for the Poor People’s
Campaign, Young stated, “We
intended to arouse the conscience
of the nation around the issues of
poverty as we had challenged the
nation to reject segregation. We
hoped the process of training and
inequities and injustice.
That is why I am so grateful for
the vision and responsible out-
reach of Russell Simmons, Rev.
Dr.
Jamal
Bryant,
Zach
McDaniels, Bishop John R.
Bryant, Rev. Dr. Carroll A.
Baltimore, Sr., and many other
Black clergy leaders from across
America who have affirmed,
“Occupy the Dream” as ecumeni-
cal coalition of church leaders who
are joining with the brothers and
sisters of the Occupy Wall Street
movement to push for economic
justice for all in the legacy of the
dream of the Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. We are part of the 99 per-
cent who are challenging the 1
“Change do not roll on the wheels of
inevitability, but comes through continuous
struggle. And so we much straighten our
backs and work for our freedom.”
—The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
mobilization would empower poor
people in a new social movement
that transcended race.”
Today, in just a few months time
since their initial demonstrations,
the Occupy Wall Street movement
has been successful in staging
major non-violent civil disobedi-
ent protests from New York City
to Los Angeles and throughout the
United States around the issues of
income inequality and economic
injustice. But beyond the growing
number and size of the Occupy
Wall Street protests, their greatest
accomplishment thus far has been
the raising of awareness on a
national level about the contradic-
tions of present-day income
percent who increasingly control
the wealth and future prosperity of
the nation.
The Black church in America
continues to be the backbone of
the Civil Rights Movement and all
successful movements for change
in this nation in last 100 years
have involved the presence and the
visionary activism of the Black
church. Now with the increasing
poverty, disproportionately high
home foreclosure rates and loss of
property, unemployment, the lack
of the best quality education for
our children, absence of good
health care delivery, discriminato-
ry and unjust intergenerational
incarceration, fiscal crisis for
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs); deteriora-
tion of our communities and busi-
ness, and a growing sense of
despair among millions of our
youth, it is imperative that African
Americans should not wait pas-
sively for someone else to speak
out and take action for the eco-
nomic recovery of Black
America.
Occupy the Dream is the revital-
ization and revival of the spirit,
consciousness and activism of the
Black church community working
in strategic coalitions with others
to demand and acquire economic
justice and equality. Thank God
for the Occupy Wall Street move-
ment and for reminding us of our
challenges, responsibilities and
opportunities today to make a big
sustainable differences in the qual-
ity of life in our communities and
for all people who cry out for a
better way of life. On January 16,
2012, we will be calling on the
Black church and other people
who believe in freedom, justice
and equality to come out and
demonstrate with us in front of
Federal Reserve Banks across the
nation in both a symbolic and sub-
stantive visible protest against the
growing massive income inequali-
ty in America.
Occupy the Dream is about
building
the
“Beloved
Community” that Dr. King envi-
sioned. Dr King said it best,
“Change do not roll on the wheels
of inevitability, but comes through
continuous struggle. And so we
much straighten our backs and
work for our freedom.” Yes, we
Read the rest online at
www.theskanner.com