In honor of Memorial Day, ProPublica and Marketplace will host a live discussion on the issues facing military members in debt.
The Military Lending Act of 2007 attempted to protect military members and their families from predatory loans. It capped annual percentage rates at 36 percent for payday and some auto-title loans.
In response, storefront lenders simply started selling other high-interest products. As our recent investigation found, they cluster around military bases in Georgia and other places around the country.
And considering that indebted service members can lose their security clearance, the rise of these loans has larger implications for the military.
So how has the Military Lending Act actually affected indebted service members? What happens to soldiers who fall into debt? And should these protections be limited to military members only?
Join us Friday, May 24th, at 2 PM ET for a discussion with ProPublica’s Paul Kiel and Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman on service member debt.
We encourage you to leave questions in advance in the comments below. You can also tweet questions with the hashtag #MilitaryLending.