Goddard decries payday loans; urges voters to reject Prop. 200

Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday that payday loans need to be outlawed because most Arizonans who use them don't know when - or how - to stop.

Payday lenders spending big in bid to stay open

Goddard said while he does not particularly like the ability of lenders to charge triple-digit interest rates for two-week loans, he understands that sometimes people need money for emergencies.

"I have no problem with that," he said. "And if it's clearly disclosed I think that's a legitimate transaction."

But Goddard said he wants voters to reject Proposition 200 because that isn't what is happening.

He said 62 percent of Arizonans who go to payday lenders have 12 or more loans within the course of any year.

"What we see is people getting caught in a cycle of indebtedness that they can't get out of," he said. "You're getting folks who are taking out payday loans to pay off the last payday loan."

Industry spokesman Stan Barnes said he has no Arizona-specific figures. But he said the numbers that Goddard has are probably not out of line, citing national statistics which show the "average" payday loan store customer gets between eight and 12 loans a year.

He said, though, the initiative, being financed by $11.6 million so far from payday lenders, does have provisions designed to deal with some of that.

One says someone who can't pay off a loan at the end of two weeks is entitled to an interest-free extension. And during that time, he said, the borrower's name is in a database which precludes that person from taking any new payday loans.

Once that debt is paid off, though, the person can borrow over and over again.

Barnes also said Proposition 200 would eliminate "rollovers," where people can take an immediate new loan from the same lender.

Goddard said these are not the kinds of real reforms needed to allow the high-interest loans to remain legal after the statutory authority to make them expires in less than two years.

Barnes, however, said the decision to borrow from payday lenders is a personal choice.