- Provisions in Ohio check-cashing law forbade a lender to make loans in excess of $800 during a six-month period to the same individual. Check-cashing businesses were required to obtain an operational license from the Superintendent of Financial Institutions before offering loans within the state.
- All loans must contain language that warns customers of the rate of interest, which must be paid for the loan before acceptance. Loan origination fees cannot exceed $5 of interest for every $50 on loans of $500 or less. Loans totaling $501 to $800 have an interest fee cap of $3.75 per $50 lent.
- Under the provisions enacted under House Bill 545 were restrictions on businesses attempting to collect payments on defaulted loans. Check-cashing business owners can't use civil action to collect on a delinquent loan. Funds can't be lent to a customer who already has an existing loan from the same business until the first loan has been repaid.
- Payday lenders are seeking repeal of the new Ohio check-cashing laws, which they feel restrict and reduce their right to operate a business. A coalition of payday lenders secured more than 400,000 valid signatures to prompt a ballot repeal issue on the ballot. In the wake of the new laws taking effect, many businesses have let employees go or closed their doors entirely. According to documents submitted by the payday lenders to the office of the Ohio Secretary of State, about 6,000 people are without jobs as a direct result of the new check-cashing laws.
- Should the House Bill 545 repeal be successful, the interest rate charged by payday lending businesses would once again reach a $15 per $100 lent. A loan origination fee of $15 could also be charged if the existing law is repealed or revised. Ohio community groups including the Ohio Roundtable, Ohio Farm Bureau, AARP and United Methodist Church are actively fighting the repeal of the law, which the groups feel protect poor citizens from getting into a financial hole too deep to crawl out of.
