Overdraft fees hit seniors hard

Checking accounts with high-cost overdraft fees hurt older people disproportionately, according to a report by the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago advocacy group.

Here's how to keep from being a victim:

• Avoid payday loans. Payday lenders have clustered their businesses near subsidized senior-citizens housing complexes, according to the institute. Payday lenders market short-term loans to seniors, partly because the lenders are allowed to automatically transfer Social Security benefits from older person's accounts to collect loans.

• Beware subprime mortgage come-ons. Unscrupulous lenders target older people to take out risky subprime loans when they could have qualified for prime loans.

• Build savings: 40 percent of retirees have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

Sandra Guy