Military Ban on Payday Lending Can’t Stop Payday Website From Sponsoring 9/11 Memorial

Payday lending might be off-limits for military personnel, but it’s fine for New York City firefighters—at least, that’s the message a website that facilitates payday loans appeared to be sending when it sponsored a cobblestone at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in downtown Manhattan.

Congress effectively outlawed payday lending to military personnel in 2007—capping interest rates that can be charged to active service members at 36 percent, and prohibiting loans to military borrowers secured with checks, electronic access to bank accounts, vehicle titles or allotment of military pay—after the Department of Defense reported that “predatory lending undermines military readiness, harms the morale of troops and their families, and adds to the cost of fielding an all volunteer fighting force.”
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