By the Stop the Debt Trap Alliance of Oregon, in partnership with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) In 2006, when Oregonians noticed the devastating impact payday and car-title lending was having on their communities, a coalition pushed for a change in the state laws, bringing new consumer protections to hundreds of thousands of people in the state. This example...
In recent decades, an increase in consumer debt has led to substantial growth in the debt collection industry as Americans struggled to pay down their debts. A subset of the debt collection industry, debt buyers, emerged in the wake of this growth in consumer debt. Debt buyers purchase debts from lenders and other creditors at a steep discount and then...
Payday and car title loans are small-dollar, high-cost products that thrive on keeping consumers in a cycle of debt. With lenders doing essentially no underwriting, consumers find it easy to obtain these loans, often marketed as a solution to financial emergency. However, the unaffordability of the loan and the lenders extreme leverage over the borrowers – either through direct access...
Payday and car-title loans typically carry annual percentage rates (APR) of at least 300%. These high-cost loans are marketed as quick solutions to a financial emergency. Research demonstrates, however, that they frequently lead to debt that is nearly impossible to escape. In addition, these loans are related to a cascade of other financial consequences, such as increased overdraft fees, delinquency...
This color-coded map of payday stores by household reveals a disturbing pattern. Southern states are among the most targeted for these high-cost, low-dollar loans.