Missouri Nursing Homes Giving Payday Loans to Employees With 912% Interest!
Some Missouri nursing homes are now in the business of providing payday loans to their employees. According to officials with the Better Business Bureau, more than ninety Missouri nursing homes make payday loans to their employees at exorbitant rates of interest. Repayment of the loan, interest, and applicable fees are deducted from the employee's next paycheck.
Reportedly, Missouri permits payday loan lenders to change an annual percentage (APR) of up to 1,950% on a two week loan and there is not a set interest percentage rate for the facilities to charge. The BBB determined one Missouri nursing home facility was charging employees an APR of 912.5%, another facility charged their employees 365%, and yet another charged their employees 304%.
Missouri state inspectors discovered the payday loan operation in 2006 and moved to ban payday loans from nursing home sites. Instead, nursing home operators made it possible for employees to take out payday loans online using computer terminals located at the facility.
Missouri nursing homes making payday loans are required to be licensed. The nursing home principals holding payday loan licenses for 62 Missouri nursing homes are: James and Judy Lincoln, Sikeston, Missouri; Mathias Dasal, Eldon, Missouri; Gary Crane of Rogers, Arkansas; and Timothy Drake of Pascagoula, Mississippi. Don Bedell of Sikeston, Missouri holds a payday loan license for 30 Missouri nursing homes.
While the arrangement is legal in Missouri, the Better Business Bureau has questioned the ethics of a nursing home employer, who is essentially making money off of the notoriously low wages of their employees, providing high interest rate loans to those very employees.
