Current Events > company scams desperate people out of money, all legal

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://splinternews.com/tim-geithner-is-living-his-best-post-obama-life-by-runn-1827285288

So what does Mariner Finance do? It mails checks to poor people, hoping theyll cash them without reading the fine printwhich reveal sky-high interest rates and a clause forcing the lendee to pay the companys legal fees should it be forced to sue them for their debts. Its a neat little scam that works in tandem with the other revolting ways America extracts money from its poor. Per the Post:

Barbara Williams, 72, a retired school custodian from Prince William County, in Northern Virginia, said she cashed a Mariner loan check for $2,539 because I wanted to get my teeth fixed. And I wanted to pay my hospital bills.

Shed been in the hospital with three mini-strokes and pneumonia, she said. Within a few months, Mariner suggested she borrow another $500, and she did. She paid more than $350 for fees and insurance on the loan, according to the loan documents. The interest rate was 30 percent.

It was kind of like I was in a trance, she said of her decision to borrow from Mariner. She paid back some of the money but then fell behind, and Mariner sued. The company won court judgment against her in April for $3,852, including $632 in fees for Mariners attorney.

These loans are very similar to payday loans but arent as closely regulated, according to the National Consumer Law Center. As the paper explains, consumer installment lenders offer slightly larger loansfrom about $1,000 to more than $25,000for longer periods of time. Theyre like payday loans, but for bigger amounts and a name that doesnt immediately reveal how predatory they are.

Is Geithners firm ashamed of its investment in and management of this vile business? Of course not. Warburg Pincus told the Post that Mariner Finance delivers a valuable service to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have limited access to consumer credit. Worse still, Mariner representatives described the company as fulfilling a social need.

This is always what those in favor of looser regulations around payday and other predatory lenders say, from the advocacy groups that represent them to Wall Street-friendly Democratic senators like Mark Warner. This Orwellian spin sometimes makes it into the laws themselves: An NCLC report on consumer installment loans from last year noted that Mississippi legislators enacted the misleadingly named Mississippi Credit Availability Act that allows an APR of 305% for a $500 loan repayable over six months. See, credit is always available if you can stomach a 305% interest rate! This is their go-to move. Dont fall for it.

Just ask former Mariner Finance employees. The Post interviewed several, including one branch manager who said he felt embarrassed by what he did there: Were there a few loans that actually helped people? Yes. Were 80 percent of them predatory? Probably.
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As David Dayen wrote for Salon back in 2014, Geithners legacy as an enthusiastic cog in the Wall Street machine was already beyond established, including by his time in the Obama administration:

At every turn on housingon mass refinancing, on principal reduction, on leverage for homeowners in the bankruptcy process, on forcing banks to write down mortgages, on a modern-day HOLCthe evidence points to Tim Geithner preferring whatever option put the least pressure on banks, rather than actually helping ordinary people. He made far more excuses to do nothing than any effort to make a difference. In fact, the programs were never meant to help homeowners, designed only to foam the runway for the banks, to spread out foreclosures and allow banks to absorb them. Homeowners are the foam being crushed by a jumbo jet in that analogy, squeezed for as many payments as possible before ultimately losing their home. And I dont have to just focus on housing; this is indicative of Geithners worldview, which sees protecting the financial system at all costs as the only thing that matters.

In a just world, Geithner would be shamed out of society and forced to beg for scraps after a story like this was published. Instead, hell keep making millionswhile people like Barbara Williams are forced to take out predatory loans to pay their hospital billseven after being appointed by a Democratic administration that the right wing insisted was teetering on the precipice of Maoism.

this is why some of us think capitalism is bad
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Dummies taking loans wit out reading the fine print lol

It's almost like business in general is all about taking advantage of stupid people. Have they tried not being stupid?

Caveat emptor

Paper_Okami posted...

In fact, the programs were never meant to help homeowners, designed only to foam the runway for the banks, to spread out foreclosures and allow banks to absorb them.

Point of order here: you're not really a home owner ,if the bank actually owns it.
Why should a lender be obligated, by force of law, to write down a debt? All this does is encourage sloppy borrowing, which just screws up interest rates and loan availability for everyone else.

*checks mail*

"wow, someone is just offering me money? Surely there's no catch at all!"
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Not surprised that CE doesn't have a problem with taking advantage of desperate people
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Paper_Okami posted...

Not surprised that CE doesn't have a problem with taking advantage of desperate people

Old people need to learn that gofundme exists, and not take financial advice from an infomercial at three in the morning.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Paper_Okami posted...

Not surprised that CE doesn't have a problem with taking advantage of desperate people

Old people need to learn that gofundme exists, and not take financial advice from an infomercial at three in the morning.

people shouldn't have to use go fund me to fund medical bills. Other countries don't.
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Oh the free market is perfect. Businesses will always benefit the consumer. /s
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Honestly the bank could have done the same thing. Any loan is gonna have interest but it just sucks they were so cut throat about it

Bacon_Pancakes posted...

Honestly the bank could have done the same thing. Any loan is gonna have interest but it just sucks they were so cut throat about it

30% is pretty fucking obnoxious though.