Source: Michelle Singletary, Washington Post ( Free Registration )

Over the years, I’ve met too many people who were stuck in a hellish payday-loan cycle, rolling one loan into another until the fees and the outstanding balance crushed them. So I completely agree with the National Consumer Law Center, which recently launched a campaign to get the Treasury Department to prevent banks from being able to snatch money from people’s direct-deposited Social Security benefit checks to settle payday loans.

The National Consumer Law Center is moving on this issue because the federal government—in an effort to go green and save some green—is switching millions of people who receive Social Security and other federal benefits from paper checks to electronic payments. In March, new enrollees for Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans, railroad retirement and federal civil servant retirement benefits began receiving their money through electronic transfers. People who currently receive checks will be shifted to all-electronic payments beginning March 1, 2013.

The National Consumer Law Center, wants specific rules governing any payday loan tied to Social Security payments.

Read Full Article: Social Security benefits need protection from payday lenders