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Payday, auto title and high cost/small dollar installment loans offer an easy solution to get a small or moderate amount of money quickly, but with one big catch. They are often difficult to pay off and many times put a consumer into a debt spiral that can keep them on the hook for years. There are…
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Welcome to the first feature in our South Carolina Housing Stories project! In this series, we will be talking with advocates, community members, and more about housing issues in South Carolina and discuss the need for housing investments in our state. For our first story, we sat down with Kieley Sutton, a public defender at…
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On January 1, 2022, a new law went into effect called the No Surprises Act. Prior to the act, if you had health insurance and received care from an out-of-network provider or facility, there was a chance you would not be covered in any way by your health plan, causing you to receive a surprise…
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CONTACTCarter Dougherty, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, [email protected] Sarah Crozier, Main Street Alliance, [email protected] Mellissa Chang, Good Jobs First, [email protected] Brandon Fountain, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, [email protected] A South Carolina tire factory owned by a global corporation received a substantial loan from the Small Business Administration for pandemic relief while many genuinely…
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En Espanol This week, congress agreed to pass another COVID relief bill. Here’s what the bill entails for SNAP, Unemployment, Stimulus Payments, and Housing Assistance. If you are being threatened with eviction, you must fill out this form, certifying you cannot pay rent due to the pandemic and give the completed form to your landlord…
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Federal and State Lawmakers Must Also Reform Payday and Auto-Title Lending Laws. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Wellshire Financial Services, an empire of auto title lending entities, secured a $25 million low-interest loan from the federal government’s pandemic program. They were able to do this because of a loophole in the program, even…
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There have been few issues in recent memory that have united Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters. Tough Wall Street reform is an issue that transcends party lines, and connects almost everyone through the dire need of stricter regulations. Wall Street reform has almost universal support from voters in the key 2020 early states, including in…
Read MoreCOLUMBIA, S.C. – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution, S.J. Res 56, which would repeal the payday and car title lending rule finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in October. The announcement to roll back this important consumer protection comes off the heels of the payday…
Read MoreOn Wednesday night, Gov. McMaster gave his first “State of the State” address. In the end, what he offered felt like little more than pandering and empty promises—albeit with a handshake and a smile. While speaking of “New Prosperity” and broad tax cuts, he conveniently omitted that the proposed cuts would largely benefit those who…
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Recently we have been flooded with headlines touting Dominion Energy’s push to purchase all the stock of SCANA, the parent company of SCE&G, and strike a deal to “save” the troubled utility. But how will this work out for consumers? First, Dominion usually promotes the fact that they are offering an immediate 5% bill discount…
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