January 3, 2008
The Borrow Smart good news
continues to roll in.
Click here to see TV coverage* of our December Borrow Smart
holiday tips program. This story was picked up by
local TV station WTVM in Birmingham just before Christmas.
Notice there is no mention of APR rates, preying on the poor or
the myriad of other stories we are accustomed to seeing in the
press. There is not too much to add to what you see except
to say that we know from our
annoncment and media campaign in October and November that
the "right"people are hearing these messages. We have made
a difference in the right places! And, we have more on the
way.
If you are not a Borrow Smart member
store, you really should consider joining today! Our
effort in 2008 will be to promote our member stores to increase
their visibility and to preserve the viability of their
businesses. You don't want to be left out. Click
here now and join with us. We know people react to our
message. With stories like the one here and with our
advertising we see a significant increase of visitors to our
Borrow Smart web site. Many of these visitors are looking
for Borrow Smart approved lenders and they can
easily find them right here.
As we have indicated previously we know
this is shaping up to be an "active legislative year" for our
industry. We already know, for sure, of one package of
legislation being developed for both title and payday lending
for this upcoming session. We know also more is in the
works. This may be one of the most active years we have
ever seen from a legislative perspective. We know other
states are under very significant attack this year as well by
well heeled adversaries (Virginia and Ohio as an example) and we
know that several states saw the industry legislated out of
business in 2007 (PA,
DC,
OR). Our program is unique and we know of
no other states that have both a local, grass roots
communication program like Borrow Smart AND a highly focused
lobbying effort. None! We believe the days of just
having a lobbyist to protect our industry are gone forever.
If we are to survive, we must communicate our message directly
to the public in our state and to the legislators in our state.
Our adversities sure do and it has worked quite well for them.
It may turn out that Borrow Smart is not
a minute too soon for us in Alabama. We would not want to
be dealing with the critical issues we face without a Borrow
Smart type program to compliment our lobbying effort.
* Many thanks to Steve Scott who had a
great "on screen" performance while standing in for our
spokesperson, Charles Hunter, who is out for few weeks on
medical leave.
