*State Veterans Legislative Update 19 March 2017: HB 2496 S/E: ‘consumer access line of credit’

HB 2496 is a Strike Everything (S/E) Bill that, if approved, will again introduce predatory lending to Arizona. See details in the Draft Message at the end of this Email.

We as very concerned Arizona citizens need to do what we can to prevent this from happening.

HB 2496 S/E is scheduled for a hearing in House Hearing Room 109 on 21 March.

Please consider sending the Draft Message at the end of this Email to all Arizona State Senators ASAP and encourage their opposition to HB 2496 S/E.

When you are ready to send the Draft Message at the end of this Legislative Update to all State Representatives, copy everything beginning with this paragraph and the instructions that follow, the list of Arizona Senate Email addresses, and the Draft Message that is shown below the list of Email addresses.

Then open a New Email on your computer as you usually do and paste what you just copied including these instructions as the text of that New Email. Then add your name at the ‘X’ after ‘Respectfully’. Don’t include your address as some legislators may delete your Email if they see the address is not in the area of their constituency. Then copy  HB 2496 S/E: ‘consumer access line of credit’  here and paste it as the subject of your New Email.

Then copy the list of Arizona Senate Email addresses with Semi-colons Email Addresses from the text of your new Email and paste it on the Bcc: line of your new Email. Be careful not to hit Send until after you complete the next step in this process!!!!!

Then delete everything before “Dear State Senator” in your New Message, and review what’s left to see that it just includes the Message that you want to send and you signature.  Change the font and font size of the text if desired. Then you can hit SEND to send your message. 

Arizona Senate Email addresses with Semi-colons:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Senate Addresses with Comas:                                                                                                          

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

                                                 Draft Message

Dear Senator,

Ladies and Gentlemen, as a very concerned citizen, I urge you to oppose predatory lending Proposed Senate Amendment to HB 2496 Strike Everything Bill: ‘consumer access line of credit’, and I encourage you to urge your colleagues to do the same.

It’s yet another lending industry attempt to return predatory lending back to Arizona. The  Proposed Amendment is available at: https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/GetDocumentPdf/451352  and starts off with 6 pages of administrative changes to A.R.S Sections 6-125 and 6-126 that accommodates a new type of loan. That is followed by addition of a 22 page long CHAPTER 18. CONSUMER ACCESS LINE OF CREDIT ARTICLE 1. It adds Sections 6-1801 through 6-1827 that detail the establishment of a new predatory loan authorization referred to as a “CALC LOAN” (Consumer Access Line of Credit Loan).

Only in Section 6-1810 on Pages 15 and 16 do they briefly mention that the lender may ‘only’ charge and collect a daily TRANSACTION FEE to ‘defray’ costs of opening, administering, and terminating a CALC Loan plan under some 8 different administrative procedures without specifying how much of the transaction fee may be used for each procedure. On Page 16, that fee is specified as a daily rate of 0.45%. That may not initially sound like very much, but when you think about it, that can amount to 164.25% annually (0.45% per day x 365 days in a year). And while they carefully mention that the TRANSACTION FEE is not interest, the out of pocket cost to the borrower is the same as interest, and you can be assured that the lender will work towards maximizing that TRANSACTION FEE on each loan.

On page 16 they briefly mention that any CALC Loan plan shall require a minimum payment on or before the due date of each billing cycle in an amount sufficient to reduce the outstanding balance by at least 8% per month. And that equates to an interest rate of at least 96% APR on a one year loan, depending upon the frequency of payments.

These predatory lending costs, whether called fees or interest are not needed in Arizona. And I again urge you to oppose the Senate Amendment to HB 2496 Strike Everything Bill: ‘consumer access line of credit’ and to urge your colleagues in the Senate and those on Senate Committees to do the same beginning with those who will be attending the 21 March Senate Appropriations Committee meeting.

Respectfully

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