The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "check-cashing businesses" ...
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Borrowing Trouble
This series looks at how corporations like Payday America use payday loans to target the poor and charge phenomenal interest fees. These stories also look at how traditional banks have helped to keep these businesses going, acting as the main source for business loans for payday lenders. At the same time, these banks are pulling their own branches out of lower income areas and violating the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 by not "serving the credit needs of all communities where they operate, including low- and moderate-income communities." Another story looks at RALs, or Refund Anticipation Loans from places like H&R Block, which also rack up interest rates and fees of 70-700 percent.
Tags: refund anticipation loans; loans; payday loans; Payday America; check-cashing businesses; Community Reinvestment Act; H&R Block
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It's Not in the Mail: Bounce a check, and you might not write another for 5 years
The Wall Street Journal reports that some banks are using a database "to blacklist customers for even small slip-ups." The database, known as ChexSystems, is subscribed to by 80 percent of banks in the United States -- and once your name is placed on it, none of those banks will let you open a checking account. What's more, "once lodged in ChexSystems, you automatically stay there for five years, whether your offense was bouncing a check or two or committing serious fraud." As a result, an increasing number of people -- particularly the poor -- are finding themselves unable to write checks for years through any bank, even if the offense was only a one-time bouncing of a check. "Denied access to checking, a privilege most Americans take for granted, those stuck in ChexSystems are forced for five years to use expensive check-cashing services and to undergo the inconvenience of paying bills with money orders or cash. Customers often learn about having been placed in the database only when told be a bank explaining why an application for a new account has been rejected." Says one chief banking officer: "..if you are in the system, a checking account is not an option, regardless of why you are there." The Journal examines whether the punishment fits the crime, and looks at the toll on low-income areas.
Tags: banks; account; checking account; checking; checks; ChexSystems; financial; business; punishment; blacklist
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No title (id: 9967)
Southern Exposure Magazine documents how huge national and international corporations finance and control a growing "povery industry" that targets low-income groups for fraud, exploitation and price-gouging; finds that business long in exploitative industries--pawn shops, check-cashing outlets and finance companies--are growing at a wild pace, Fall 1993.