Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • About CRL
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • FAQs
    • Careers
    • Impact
  • Issues
    • Consumer Finance
    • Debt Collection & Settlement
    • Mortgage Lending
    • Overdraft Fees
    • Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans
    • Small Business
    • Student Loans
  • Research & Policy
  • Newsroom
    • CRL in the News
    • Press Releases
  • Contact Us
  • Search
  • Donate

Main menu

  • About CRL
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • FAQs
    • Careers
    • Impact
  • Issues
    • Consumer Finance
    • Debt Collection & Settlement
    • Mortgage Lending
    • Overdraft Fees
    • Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans
    • Small Business
    • Student Loans
  • Research & Policy
  • Newsroom
    • CRL in the News
    • Press Releases
  • Contact Us
  • Search
  • Donate

Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Payday, car-title, and similar high-cost loans, typically with interest rates of 100% APR and higher, trap people in crippling long-term debt. CRL advocates for regulators to require lenders to verify borrowers can afford to repay a loan before that loan is issued. CRL also advocates for interest rate caps of no higher than 36% APR and for enforcement of current usury laws.

Filter Results

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Survey Summary of Earned Wage Advance and Cash Advance Apps

Consumers are increasingly accessing small short-term loans through digital cash advance and Earned Wage Advance (EWA) online applications. Consumers can receive advance amounts up to $750 per pay period while using these apps. Some companies contract with employers to provide this product while others work directly with consumers. In the direct-to-consumer model, the advances are often marketed as “free,” but providers require a variety of fees to expedite the advance and employ pressure tactics allowing them to collect fees in the form of “tips”. These fees make advances very costly for...
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Debt Trap Drives the Fee Drain: Payday and Car-Title Lenders Drain Nearly $3 Billion in Fees Every Year

Millions of Americans continue to experience financial precarity, and this report illustrates how payday and car-title lending extract financial resources from communities across the United States.
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Monday, June 12, 2023

Red Alert Rates: Annual Percentage Rates on $400, Single-Payment Payday Loans in the United States

Payday lenders charge exorbitant fees to borrowers without assessing their ability to repay, and the annual interest rates on these loans are in the triple digits.
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Consumer, Civil rights, and Labor Groups in California Commend Efforts to Regulate Abusive Fintech Lenders

The undersigned organizations commend the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) for moving to regulate abusive fintech lenders, including earned wage advance providers. We are very pleased to support the proposed rules and encourage the DFPI to vigorously enforce them to ensure that California’s most vulnerable consumers are not harmed. Signatories California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) CA Labor Federation CA League of United Latin American Citizens (CA LULAC) California Low-Income Consumer Coalition (CLICC) California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) Center for...
Comment Letter
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

CRL and NCLC Comment in Support of the DFPI’s proposal to Clarify that Fintech Cash Advances are Covered by the California Financing Law

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) expressed support for the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s (DFPI) proposal to clarify that fintech cash advances are covered by the California Financing Law (CFL), including its fee and interest rate limits. The proposal requires that lenders be licensed under the CFL, with a temporary licensing exception for employer-based advances by firms that register under the California Consumer Financial Protection Law.
Comment Letter
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Friday, April 7, 2023

Burned Borrowers: A Look at the Experiences of OppFi Customers

Opportunity Financial, also known as OppFi, is a consumer lending company based in Chicago, Illinois that offers personal installment loans. Their marketing suggests they are providing an essential service to the credit and income constrained; their products, however, carry triple-digit Annual Percentage Rates (APRs). Public filings reveal a business model built around high levels of delinquency and default . According to its website, OppFi’s stated mission is to “empower everyday consumers to rebuild their financial health," but the company is a legacy subprime lender. OppFi uses a rent-a...
Policy & Legislation
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Friday, April 7, 2023

Adding Fuel to the Fire: OppFi Hurts, Does Not Help, Borrowers’ Credit Health

Opportunity Financial, also known as OppFi, is a consumer lending company based in Chicago, Illinois that offers personal installment loans. Although OppFi’s stated mission is to “empower everyday consumers to rebuild their financial health,” OppFi is a legacy subprime lender. The company uses a rent-a-bank scheme to evade consumer protections and charge customers triple-digit interest rates on its personal installment loan product. In a rent-a-bank scheme, a lender partners with an out-of-state bank. The lender uses that bank’s charter to make loans at rates up to five times greater than the...
Policy & Legislation
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Coalition Comments to FDIC Regarding Community Reinvestment Act Examination of First Electronic Bank

Accountable.US, Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low- income clients), National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Public Citizen, US PIRG and the Woodstock Institute submitted comments for the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examination of First Electronic Bank. First Electronic Bank helps at least two nonbank lenders make predatory loans at rates up to 180% annual percentage rate (APR) that they cannot legally make directly. The loans that First Electronic Bank...
Comment Letter
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Earned Wage Advance: States Should Regulate As Credit, Protect Consumers

Earned or Early Wage Advance (EWA) products offer workers access to their wages before payday, usually for a fee. While low-wage workers can benefit from EWA programs that are properly designed and regulated, they can instead be harmed when products are allowed into the marketplace without guardrails keeping their use and cost within reasonable bounds. States should regulate all EWA products as credit and require compliance with consumer protections that prevent predatory lending debt traps commonly associated with payday loans. Download to continue reading
Policy & Legislation
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

CRL Testimony for the Vermont House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development

CRL policy counsel Monica Burks recommends Vermont lawmakers decline to codify an Earned Wage Advance business model that could risk enabling payday lending-like debt traps in a state with an 18% usury cap.
Testimony
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • …
  • Next page ››
  • Last page Last »
Displaying 1 - 10 of 148

Issues

  • Consumer Finance
  • Debt Collection & Settlement
  • Mortgage Lending
  • Overdraft Fees
  • Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans
  • Small Business
  • Student Loans

Support CRL

CRL circle

CRL operates on contributions from individuals and institutional funders. 

Donate Now 

Thank you for your support!

© 2023 Center for Responsible Lending. 
All rights reserved. 

Center for Responsible Lending 
302 West Main Street, 
Durham, NC 27701 
(919) 313-8500 

District of Columbia Office 
910 17th Street NW, Suite 800, 
Washington, DC 20006 
(202) 349-1850 

California Office 
1970 Broadway Suite 350, 
Oakland, CA 94612 
(510) 379-5500

Join Our Mailing List  
Sign up for updates on the fight against predatory lending.

Join a Mailing List

Building on Over 40 Years of Lending Experience

CRL’s expertise gives it trusted insight to evaluate the impact  of financial products and policies on the wealth and economic stability of Asian, Black, Latino, rural, women, military, low-wage, low-wealth, and early-career workers and communities.

CRL is an affiliate of Self-Help, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit community development financial institutions. Our work leverages the strength of partnerships with national and local consumer and civil rights organizations.

Stay Connected

‌‌‌‌

Footer menu

  • Home
  • About CRL
  • Issues
  • Research & Policy
  • Newsroom