For all of us that are angered by the entire predatory lending industry (e.g. payday loan establishments) and for all those that are their victims, now there's a creative alternative. Try a mango! It's the name of a new, innovative, but simplified method of banking that just opened in South Austin. Check out the "no frills" approach to banking that keeps their fees to a minimum and encourages people to save their money for that inevitable "rainy day." You can even do your banking on your mobile phone. This is amazing.
Check it out!
That guy is crazy. I love it. Very interesting response to the plague of predatory lending.
ReplyDeleteBesides a more or less traditional bank model (in this case just overhead downscaled), I've been wondering for a while if something like a microfinance concept might work on the neighborhood level. You see it implemented successfully in developing countries, but I'm not aware of a single example in an American neighborhood. Imagine a community microfinance center, or a Kiva, in East Austin that could extend the basic dignity of access to high quality financial services to the same community that has been commoditized by traditional banks.
Check out Grace Period (www.graceperiod.org), a nonprofit out of Pittsburgh that works with a local credit union to provide reasonably priced loans and financial counseling as an alternative to payday loan shops.
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