Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Our new report shows that people who take out these loans experience steep costs as well as increasing financial stress due to increased use over time.

Payday loan apps offer small, short-term loans that are typically repaid on the consumers’ next payday. These products are sometimes called Earned Wage Advance, Early Wage Access, or EWA but few merit this name. Research by CRL and others has demonstrated using these apps leave many consumers worse off - paying high fees for small loans, increasing their risk of...

CRL responded to the New York Department of Financial Services Request for Information Regarding Buy Now Pay Later, which requested comments from industry and interested parties on the “Buy-Now-Pay-Later Act" (L.2025, c. 58, Part Y, New York Banking Law Article 14-B). This law represents an essential step towards better protecting New York consumers from financial harm. Specifically, the Act provides...

Payday loan apps issue small, short-term loans that are typically repaid on the consumer’s next payday either directly from a bank account or as a payroll deduction. 1 Lenders market these loans as a means for workers to make ends meet between paychecks. In reality, workers who are already living paycheck-to-paycheck may find themselves pulled into a cycle of reborrowing...

In this comment, CRL applauds the Department of Housing and Urban Development for taking a critical first step in better understanding buy-now, pay-later financing effects by soliciting information from the general public and all concerned stakeholders. For the reasons discussed in this response, CRL believes that this important step should be followed, however, by focused research into the relationship between...

45 local and national advocates from across the country, including 20 from Maryland, urge Maryland’s Governor to veto HB1294, a bill that gives app-based payday lenders a special exemption from state laws that prohibit lending that is discriminatory, is deceptive, or carries extremely high interest rates.

Vehicle-title loans are high-cost loans with little or no underwriting that are secured by a borrower’s car title. Title lenders charge fees and interest as high as 300% APR and put borrowers’ important assets at risk of repossession.

In the 30 states that allow payday lending, single-payment and payday installment loans drained more than $2.4 billion in fees in a single year from low-income borrowers.

The National Consumer Law Center, the Center for Responsible Lending and the Student Borrower Protection Center submitted to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on the Request for Information on Bank-Fintech Arrangements Involving Banking Products and Services Distributed to Consumers and Businesses. The comments focus on bank-fintech partnerships in the...

States in blue have a state-specific factsheet, while states in gray can use the national factsheet which highlights data from users in all 50 states. Access the factsheets at the links below. Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Nevada New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas...