State usury laws refer to a body of law regulating the amount of interest charged by lenders. In January, the Legislature will take up House Bill 267, a bill placing an interest rate cap of 36 percent APR on payday and auto title loans. Federal bankruptcy law reform allowing more discharge of debt, an increase in cooperative and charitable lending, and new small loan laws were all responses to the havoc created by usury. When interest rate caps were scrapped in our state in 1999, the legislative history shows that the Legislature expected interest rates to go up to only 20 to 25 percent. Read More