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Reporter's notebook: Behind 'Beyond payday loans'

May 13, 2013
We talk to the reporters who worked on the Marketplace and Propublica investigative story: "Beyond Payday Loans."
Erik Lesser/EPA for Propublica

The problem behind the business of installment loans

May 13, 2013
World Finance of Greenville, S.C., rakes in half-a-billion dollars a year providing small loans to subprime borrowers. Thanks to an ever-deepening cycle of debt, business is good.

On Victory Drive, soldiers defeated by debt: The story from Propublica

May 13, 2013
A federal law is supposed to protect service members from predatory lending. But lenders exploit loopholes, trapping military personnel in high-interest debt.

A quagmire of debt and a billion dollar company: The story from Propublica

May 10, 2013
World Finance, a billion-dollar company, peddles installment loans, a product that often drives borrowers into a similar quagmire of debt.

Beware tribal payday loans

Apr 26, 2013
High interest payday loans are seen by critics as a fast track to endless cycles of debt for borrowers -- and there's a new breed of payday loan to watch out for.

For public good, not for profit.

Could big banks help rein in payday lenders?

Mar 20, 2013
Payday lenders circumvented state laws by moving online, and in the process big banks became enablers (and potentially profited) from payday lending. Now Chase is making changes to protect its customers from payday lenders. Will other banks follow?

Payday lenders need to be more transparent

Mar 8, 2013
Last week on Marketplace, a payday loan lender defended his industry, saying as long as customers did the math, he wasn't doing anything wrong. Commentator Helaine Olen begs to differ.

In defense of payday lenders

Feb 21, 2013
A payday lender from Kansas City, Missouri, says his business is fair, just do the math.