The government capped interest rates on the military at 36%. This basically eliminated payday lending to the military. The demand never went away, but it’s nice to hear that the Army is doing something about it. Actually, they’ve been loaning money to their soldiers for quite a while.
This program is called the Army Emergency Relief fund or AER. Andrew Cohen, deputy director for finance and the treasurer of this fund says “Every Soldier that has a valid need has gotten assistance, so the needs of our Soldiers are being met.”
I’m not sure what valid need means. I can’t beleive that this money is made available to the soldiers in an instant.
One caveat is that the money is raised from donations, so at the end of the day, it’s free money.
