Large Hidden Costs of Loans Made Through Cash Advance Apps

Not Free: The Large Hidden Costs of Small-Dollar Loans Made Through Cash Advance Apps | CRL, April 3, 2024 | Download the report

The Persistent Harms of High-Cost Installment Loans

Unsafe Harbor: The Persistent Harms of High-Cost Installment Loans | CRL, September 26, 2022 | Download the report

What happens when a state implements a 36% interest rate cap?

Illinois’s Predatory Loan Prevention Act (PLPA)

The Impacts of the State’s 36% Rate Cap | One-pager, Woodstock Institute, January 2024

The Impacts of the State’s 36% Rate Cap | First edition, Woodstock Institute, January 2024

The Sky Doesn't Fall: Life After Payday Lending in South Dakota

Press Release | Center for Responsible Lending, January 13, 2020
CRL Report | Charla Rios, Diane Standaert, Yasmin Farahi, CRL, January 2020

After Payday Loans

Consumers Find Better Ways to Cope with Financial Challenges | NCLC, August 2021

Why Cap Interest Rates at 36%? | NCLC, August 2021

Medical Credit Cards and Financing Plans

Medical credit cards may lead patients to overpay for their health care, Democrats warn

by Ken Sweet, Associated Press | Tucson.com (and elsewhere), July 5, 2023

What should I know about medical credit cards and payment plans for medical bills?

Informational article from the CFPB | May 8, 2023

Summary and research report from the CFPB | May 4, 2023

"This report highlights some of the risks to consumers of using financing products such as medical credit cards and installment loans to pay for medical procedures and services."

Earned/Early Wage Advance (EWA) Programs

2021 Earned Wage Access Data Findings from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation | Analysis completed Q1 2023

"The average annual APR was 334% for tip companies and 331% for the non-tip companies."

Early wage access products—which allow workers to access wages they have already earned ahead of the regular payday—another form of payday lending?

• Earned Wage Advances:  Workers Shouldn’t Pay to be Paid | NCLC, Jan. 12, 2023, and as a one-page PDF brief

• Earned Wage Access: States Should Regulate As Credit, Protect Consumers | CRL, Feb. 8, 2022

Payday Loan Debt Trap Tracker

Consumer protections for payday and car-title loans, created by the previous leadership of the CFPB after years of research, were due to take effect on Aug. 19, 2019. Now, these latter-day loan sharks will trap more borrowers in vicious cycles of debt.

Since former Director Kathy Kraninger sided with the sharks and turned her back on consumers, American borrowers caught in this infamous debt trap have paid fees amounting to:  (click here to see the amount)

States without Payday and Car‐title Lending Save Over $5 Billion in Fees Annually

Delvin Davies, Susan Lupton, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) | Updated January 2017

"Research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has found that the average payday consumer takes out 10 loans a year, borrowing one loan immediately after another. Similarly, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) found that the typical car title loan consumer will renew their loan 8 times, paying more in fees than they originally borrow. Overall, repeat refinancing is essential to generate fee revenue for both the payday and car title business models. CRL estimates that payday and car title loans cost consumers over $8 billion in fees annually."

Arizonans Oppose Predatory Lending

AZ state legislators on 2/29/2016 revived a bill to allow payday lenders to offer 204% APR "flex loans".  Senator Kavanagh’s original flex loan bill, SB1447  failed to pass in Senate finance committee hearing on a 2-3 vote.  The payday lender bill was resurrected using a strike-everything tactic that inserted the flex loan bill language into SB 1316.

Christian leaders plead for Arizona legislators to reject usurious lending bill, SB 1316

Colonel Lee Lange
US Marine Corps (Ret.):

"The U.S. Department of Defense found that predatory lending underlines military readiness. SB1447 deliberately puts our military community, including veterans and their families, in harm's way - like sending a soldier to battle without ammunition.  This Marine urges our legislators to vote no to the payday lenders' bill, SB1447"

Pastor Dr. Warren Stewart Sr. 

President of the Paradise Missionary Baptist State Convention of Arizona: 

"A vote in favor of SB 1316 is as deeply immoral. Payday lenders will trap people in modern-day debt slavery. It violates the Bible's teachings against usury and against taking advantage of the poor.  The choice before legislators is simple: God or Greed?"