How Black Churches Helped Dallas Rein In Payday Lenders

In 2009, Rev. Danielle Ayers was approached by a member of her church who said he was stuck. He’d taken out a payday loan for a few hundred bucks, and he couldn’t pay it off.

Ayers is the pastor for justice at Friendship-West Baptist Church, and she was confused: How could a small loan be such a big problem?

“I was like, ‘Can you just bring me your loan documents?’” she recalled. “I’m thinking, I don’t know, two pages for a small-dollar loan. I wasn’t thinking anything extensive. And it was a thick packet.”

Ayers was floored by what she read: Exorbitant fees and terms that seemed designed to trip people up. The man had already refinanced the loan a couple of times, racking up more and more debt.

Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/how-black-churches-helped-dallas-rein-in-payday-lenders/