CRL in the News

The Center for Responsible Lending studied complaints made by consumers to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Better Business Bureau regarding buy now, pay later options. Based on those complaints, some consumers said they had faced delays in receiving refunds, had difficulty resolving disputes and were upset when they still had to make repayments during a dispute process. "They get into this endless cycle, a loop of communication that goes nowhere," said Nadine Chabrier, senior policy counsel working on federal policy and litigation at the Center for Responsible Lending.

Nadine Chabrier, senior policy council at the Center for Responsible Lending, worries about consumers who take out multiple BNPL loans. “It’s easy to lose track, and you can quickly be in a situation where you have payments due all over the month,” Chabier told Checkbook. “You don’t get a statement, and you may end up getting overdraft fees if you don’t have enough money in your bank account. And this can make the product unaffordable for some people.”

Whether it’s buying a home, saving for retirement or starting a business, student debt makes it difficult for graduates of historically Black colleges and universities to build wealth after college, a new report shows. The report, from the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending, evaluated polling, focus group and public education data to gauge the impact of heavy debt burdens — and relief from them, via the federal pause on student loan payments — on HBCU graduates.

The increase was larger for Black and Latino buyers because their homeownership rates were so much lower to begin with, said Mike Calhoun, the president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

The Center for Responsible Lending, a North Carolina-based nonprofit research organization that works to end predatory lending, released a study in late September that examined the "persistent harms of high-cost installment loans," a form of predatory lending that includes "rent-a-bank" loans. The group says it found predatory loans had a greater impact on people of color and people with low incomes.

Nadine Chabrier is senior policy and litigation counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, and spoke with the Standard about why consumers should use caution when financing with Buy Now, Pay Later. She said that, while the loans aren’t inherently predatory, they can quickly rack up fees if borrowers aren’t careful. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

"If this bill passes, it will not be the end of rewards programs. They are one of the most important ways that credit card companies attract and keep some of their most profitable customers. And so they will continue to use that as a way to get those customers and keep them," said Mike Calhoun with the Center for Responsible Lending.

The CRL is particularly concerned about TD's overdraft practices and is advocating for the bank to change those policies, said Nadine Chabrier, senior policy and litigation counsel at the center. Such a change could be part of a community benefit agreement, but those tend to focus on lending, and the center wants those changes to be made now, she added. "We're going to advocate for them to revise their overdraft policies to stop harming consumers before the merger happens," Chabrier said in an interview. "It should be a condition of it."

Biden’s executive order “will bring wealth-building opportunities to struggling borrowers who have been crippled by student loan debt, especially low-wealth individuals, women and people of color — who were also disproportionately affected by the burdens of an unforgiving public health crisis,” said Jaylon Herbin, outreach associate and policy manager at the Durham-based Center for Responsible Lending.

Consumer advocates say that a pro-consumer ruling in the suit could make it difficult for debt buyers operating in North Carolina to churn out a high volume of lawsuits, which frequently lead to default judgments against borrowers. "This has the potential for disrupting the assembly line, because the debt buyer is held to a higher standard," Nadine Chabrier, senior policy and litigation counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, said in an interview Wednesday.