Instructions

Dear Pawnshop Owner,

Congress has proposed several bills that, if passed, will set the maximum interest rate you can charge on loans at 36%, INCLUDING ALL FEES.

A 36% interest rate cap is equivalent to a maximum charge of $0.10 per day on a $100 loan. As we're sure you're aware, it would be difficult – if not impossible – to successfully operate a pawnshop under this rate cap.

Few people outside Congress and the pawnshop industry are aware of these bills and the negative consequences they will have if passed. We're asking you to help in our effort to educate the general public - especially pawnshop clients - about the effects of these new bills.

You can help by:

If you're internet savvy, you can also get creative in helping with this effort. Videotape your clients and ask them how they feel about the pawnshop, what they would do if it was forced to close, etc. Then post the videos to Youtube.com and alert your local press about them. Start a blog. Do anything (and encourage your customers to do anything) that will make the government see how unhappy people are about these bills!

If you have any questions, please contact us at Contact@SaveMyPawnshop.com. We'll help in any way we can.

Thank you for your help!
The Team at SaveMyPawnshop.com

Congress and Media Contact Information

(Pawnshop Owners: You may want to copy this page and give it to your clients.)

BILLS THAT MAY FORCE PAWNSHOP CLOSURE:

Bill Name: Senate Bill 500
Sponsor: Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Phone: (202) 224-2152

Bill Name: Senate Bill 257
Sponsor: Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Phone: (202) 224-2921
Cosponsor: Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Phone: (202) 224-2152

Bill Name: Senate Bill 582
Sponsor: Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Phone: (202) 224-5141
Cosponsor: Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Phone: (202) 224-2152
Bill Name: House of Representatives Bill 1608
Sponsor: Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Phone: (650) 342-0300
Cosponsor: William Delahunt (D-MA)
Phone: (202) 226-6434

Bill Name: House of Representatives Bill 1640
Sponsor: Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
Phone: (202) 225-6335
Cosponsor: Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Phone: (612) 522-1212
Cosponsor: Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Phone: (901) 544-4131
Cosponsor: Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
Phone: (202) (202) 225-5161
Cosponsor: Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Phone: (202) 225-2661
Cosponsor: James McDermott (D-WA)
Phone: (202) 225-3106
Cosponsor: George Miller (D-CA)
Phone: (202) 225-2095

TO CONTACT YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER OR NEWS STATION:
  1. Visit the newspaper or news station's website. You can usually find it by Google'ing their name ("Los Angeles Times", "KCAL9", etc.).
  2. Look for a link called "Contact Us", "About Us", "Submit Story Idea", "Submit Breaking News" or something similar and click it.
  3. Use the information found on this page to contact the reporters.
If you have any trouble finding the contact information you need, email us at Contact@SaveMyPawnshop.com, tell us what city and state you live in, and we'll send you your local reporters' contact info.

Senate Bill S500

(the full text of the bill is shown below)

A bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act to establish a national usury rate for consumer credit transactions.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the 'Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates Act of 2009'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
  1. attempts have been made to prohibit usurious interest rates in America since colonial times;
  2. at the State level, 15 states and the District of Columbia have enacted broadly applicable usury laws that protect borrowers from high-cost payday loans and many other forms of credit, while 34 states and the District of Columbia have limited annual interest rates to 36 percent or less for 1 or more types of consumer credit;
  3. at the Federal level, in 2006, Congress enacted a Federal 36 percent annualized usury cap for service members and their families for covered credit products, as defined by the Department of Defense, which curbed payday, car title, and tax refund lending around military bases;
  4. notwithstanding such attempts to curb predatory lending, high-cost lending persists in all 50 States due to loopholes in State laws, safe harbor laws for specific forms of credit, and the exportation of unregulated interest rates permitted by preemption;
  5. due to the lack of a comprehensive Federal usury cap, consumers annually pay approximately $17,500,000,000 for high-cost overdraft loans, as much as $8,600,000,000 for storefront and online payday loans, and nearly $900,000,000 for tax refund anticipation loans;
  6. cash-strapped consumers pay on average 400 percent annual interest for payday loans, 300 percent annual interest for car title loans, up to 3,500 percent for bank overdraft loans, 50 to 500 percent annual interest for loans secured by expected tax refunds, and higher than 50 percent annual percentage interest for credit cards that charge junk fees;
  7. a national maximum interest rate that includes all forms of fees and closes all loopholes is necessary to eliminate such predatory lending; and
  8. alternatives to predatory lending that encourage small dollar loans with minimal or no fees, installment payment schedules, and affordable repayment periods should be encouraged.
SEC. 3. NATIONAL MAXIMUM INTEREST RATE.
The Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
'SEC. 141. MAXIMUM RATES OF INTEREST.

SEC. 4. DISCLOSURE OF FEE AND INTEREST RATE FOR OPEN END CREDIT PLANS.
Section 127(b)(6) of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1637(b)(6)) is amended by striking 'the total finance charge expressed' and all that follows through the end of the paragraph and inserting 'the fee and interest rate, displayed as 'FAIR', established under section 141.'.