In recent payday loan news, the state of Colorado has passed a law restricting the APR on payday loans. The new law puts a cap of 45% APR. This is just following suit with some other states that have put some sort of restrictions on these short-term loans. Other states that have some sort of payday loan legislation or the payday loans are banned are the states of: AZ, AR, CT, GA, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, VT and WV.
Many talk about installment loans or other short-term loan options. Is there going to be a transition from what we all know as a “payday loan” to something else to help those consumers that need the help? Either way, there HAS to be an option for consumers. If we want to call it payday loan.. installment loan, or whatever, consumers need to have somewhere to turn for unexpected situations that happen in their lives.

It looks like the payday “police” have hit Colorado. There is a proposed payday loan bill that would put an interest rate cap on payday loans. The reasoning behind this bill is that some Coloradans believe, “that excess interest rates can lead Colorado families into a debt trap of repeat borrowing”. There are three separate proposed bills. One would put the rate cap at 18%, another at 28% and another proposed bill putting the rate cap at 36%. The unfortunate thing about these sorts of bill is that the potential rate caps would hurt the payday lenders and potentially not allow them to stay in business. This would then hurt consumers who are looking for a much needed payday loan. We will all be watching the outcome of these proposed bills.

It’s a sad day in one of America’s great cities, and for one of the that city’s oldest businesses.  What can be said when a business that is almost 150 years old has closed its doors?  The last edition of the Rocky Mountain News was published this morning.  Yesterday, the owners announced there would be only one more edition of the paper.  It was not a total surprise, as the paper was recently for sale, but shock and sadness was felt in the newsroom, and throughout greater Denver.

There is little blame to be passed around, as the business model of daily newspapers has abruptly changed for the worse.  The poor economy has drastically affected display advertising, and classified advertising has either moved online or been drastically reduced.  The newspaper industry could perhaps overcome the loss of one revenue stream, but they cannot handle the loss or reduction of two revenue streams.  Heck, their third revenue stream (subscriptions) is also down.

Sadly, there are only about ten cities that still have two daily general interest newspapers.  A community is always served better by two voices rather than one.  More newspapers will surely close and some are looking again at charging for online content. (An experiment that hasn’t work for most papers)  If it’s not too late, perhaps some papers can figure out a way to monetize their websites.  (Please contact our V.P. of Marketing, Eugen Ilie, if assistance is needed.)

Tomorrow morning will be sad, and very different for many in Colorado.  Change is usually good, but when it is quickly forced on you, it can be unsettling.  Enjoy that cup of the coffee, and for many, the “Rocky” will be missed, but not forgotten.