Perdue signs law putting new teeth into payday loan crackdown

ATLANTA — A law signed Friday by Gov. Sonny Perdue will put new muscle into the effort to stop payday loans, which lure the poor into a trap of spiraling debt.
The practice already is illegal in Georgia but critics say existing state laws are too weak to effectively deter it.
The new law, which takes effect May 1, includes felony penalties for those who make payday loans — short-term, high-interest cash advances that use a customer’s next paycheck as security.
The crackdown was pushed in part by top military base commanders in Georgia, who complained that payday lenders especially targeted young soldiers and sailors — many of them economically unsophisticated — and set up shop near military bases.

From: http://www.citizenonline.net/citizen/archive
/article60BA190C7C9A4691996EE3AD6BD7DE1C.asp