In case you haven’t heard, payday loans are the ban of the poor. Aboutpayday.com
I created a graphic that captures the essential facts of a thumbprint loan proposal, which I suggest locating at US Post offices.
The essence of the proposal is to eliminate all the paperwork for government sponsored payday loans at prime plus 1% simple interest.
To do that, all that is required for a loan is a thumbprint. That’s it. No name, location, where your job is located, etc.
When paid, users can choose to create a credit history for their thumbprint, or, have it deleted from the system. Users who create a credit history can build up a record in order to borrow larger than base amounts, or to create a credit history for export to more conventional lenders.
When I first starting thinking about this proposal, I envisioned interactions with Post Office personnel but even that is unnecessary. Thumbprint loans could be wholly automated, up to and including dispersal of cash. That has the added feature of not being limited to post office hours of operation.
A rough sketch to be sure but reducing the APR of payday loans by 791% to 532% for 24 million Americans is worth being on the national agenda.