For tribes like ours, geography creates a number of barriers to promoting economic growth. E-commerce has provided our tribe with the ability to create innovative and profitable businesses, and we believe our product gives consumers real choice when it comes to emergency short-term loans. All NALA lenders operate as an arm of their tribe and are wholly owned by the tribe. Montana law prohibits interest rates above 36 percent, but your lending rates soar as high as 360 percent. How do you ensure that the person securing a Plain Green loan is not a Montana resident and thereby avoid breaking state law?
NALA’s Best Practices ensure complete transparency of rates and fees, so there is always full disclosure of all terms and conditions to the consumer. Here are the facts. According to a 2009 Bretton Wood study, Fee Analysis of Band and Credit Union Non-Sufficient Funds and Overdraft Protection Programs, more than 20 million households pay an average of $1,500 a year in non-sufficient funds and overdraft fees. According to a 2008 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation study, “a $27 overdraft fee that a customer repays in two weeks on a $20 debit purchase would incur an annual percentage rate of 3,520 percent,” The New York Times reported. Our consumers know the facts and the real costs of their options. Plain Green does not lend within the state of Montana. We use all available information to underwrite unsecured loans and this includes the applicant’s address on the credit application." Get the Story:
Montana Senator Sheds Light on Chippewa Cree’s Plain Green Loans (Indian Country Today 1/27)
Join the Conversation