Car title lending bill headed to Va. House floor

Posted to: Business State Government Virginia
Login or register to post comments

The Associated Press
© March 5, 2010

RICHMOND

Legislation to rein in car title lenders is advancing in the House.

The House Commerce and Labor Committee voted 21-1 Thursday to send a bill to the House floor that would limit how much the companies could lend and charge borrowers.

Currently the lenders are unregulated, charge more than 300 percent interest and can repossess a borrower's vehicle if he falls behind on the payments.

The committee made some changes to the bill that would allow lenders to continue to charge those who were in default if they tried to hide the vehicle.

Lawmakers say the bill strikes a balance between protecting customers and not driving the lenders out of the state because they serve those who can't get traditional credit.

The bill already has passed the Senate.

COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.

Shark Bit

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/05/2010 at 12:28 pm.

These Car Title loan businesses are no more than legalized loan "Sharking!"
Their prey are low-income persons.

Please do it

Submitted by Ptown67 on Thu, 03/04/2010 at 11:03 pm.

I'm the first to say that people should be smart enough to fend for themselves. But car title lending? The only people who utilize them are already in dire straights, this is almost as bad as borrowing from the mob. Seriously, car title lending is a parasitic industry that preys upon those who can least afford it. Regulate them at the very least. I think they should be outlawed.