The Buffalo News

Sunday, November 23, 2008

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The High Cost of Being Poor

DAY ONE - Low-income workers face array of immoral - and illegal - charges

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

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

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

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

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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