The mob offers better rates and easier terms than payday lenders.

With products also known as "payday advance" or "cash advance," payday lenders strip millions of dollars from poor and minority communities every year by offering dubious loans that are designed to keep people in a cycle of debt.

Billions of dollars each year in fees and interest rates of 400 to 900 percent are coming out of the pockets of people who can least afford it.

In 2008, nearly 3.4 million Ohioans voted to cap annual percentage rates on payday loans to 28 percent, where the average rate had been around 391 percent. Problem solved, right?

Not when it comes to payday lenders, who promptly found several loopholes in Ohio law that allowed them to weasel around the will of the voters and continue to charge outrageous interest rates.

Ohio lawmakers have been considering a bill (HB 209) that will close those loopholes.

Sign the petition to voice your support for a strictly enforced interest rate cap, the only proven means to get a grip on this out-of-control industry.

It's time for us to push our federal and state lawmakers to put a stop to the kneecapping of our most vulnerable citizens by ending the corporate thuggery of payday lenders.

Photo credit: taberandrew