The High Cost of Being Poor
- DAY ONE - Low-income workers face array of immoral - and illegal - charges
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By Rod Watson and Jonathan D. Epstein - News Staff Reporters
Updated: 05/21/08 4:45 PM
- Alma Medina forked over $20 to cash a check at a corner store because she didn't have a checking account.
- Check-cashing charges exceed legal rate
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By Rod Watson - News Staff Reporter
Updated: 05/21/08 4:39 PM
- Neighborhood stores are illegally operating unlicensed check-cashing businesses in Buffalo, charging excessive fees -- as much as 10 percent -- to customers in some of the poorest sections of the city, The Buffalo News found.
- DAY TWO - Rent-to-own buys misery for the poor
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By Jonathan D. Epstein and Rod Watson - News Staff Reporters
Updated: 05/21/08 4:31 PM
- Here's how life works for the working poor -- the people without credit cards or cash savings -- when the washing machine breaks, the kids need a bed, or the family wants a television.
- Some tax firms use loophole to grab money from poor
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Updated: 05/21/08 4:20 PM
- Rent-to-own stores offer a pricey way to buy goods, but there are equally costly ways for low-income consumers to borrow money.
- DAY THREE - Predatory loans turn home into bad dream
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By Jonathan D. Epstein - News Staff Reporter
Updated: 05/21/08 4:16 PM
- When Mona Lisa Wilson's day care business began taking off several years ago, she and her husband, Dimitrius, thought it was time to fulfill their dream: to own a home.
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