Durham, North Carolina – The Center for Responsible (CRL) today released a report on the harm to consumers from a lender charging annual percentage rates (APRs) up to 195%, “Lost Opportunities: How OppFi Traps Borrowers in Unaffordable Debt.” The report outlines a path for state legislators to more effectively stop the scheme by which OppFi and a handful of other rogue lenders evade state interest rate limits.

“OppFi is charging interest rates that would make a loan shark blush,” said Whitney Barkley-Denney, report co-author and senior policy counsel at the CRL. “OppFi traps people in debt with loans that blow way past the maximum interest rate allowed under most states’ laws.”

For the report, CRL examined publicly available information about OppFi and reviewed both borrower complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and anonymized transactional data from a national nonprofit. The report’s key findings are:

  • OppFi charges exorbitant rates on personal installment loans, with APRs of up to 195% on loans ranging from $500–$5,000.
  • Frequent refinancing is built into OppFi’s business model. According to a 2021 lawsuit by the District of Columbia, 75% of the pre-tax income that OppFi makes from OppLoans consumers is the result of refinancing. OppFi profits from borrowers who spend extended periods carrying extremely high-cost consumer debt.
  • OppFi loans fail at a staggeringly high rate. The company has publicly disclosed in its latest 10-K filing a net charge-off rate of 51.4% (as a percentage of average receivables), and a 2021 lawsuit by the District of Columbia alleges that their underwriting model anticipates that up to one-third of borrowers will default. OppFi expects their borrowers to struggle, but it continues to lend to them regardless.
  • Many borrowers in our sample had not just OppFi loans, but other high-cost loan products as well, indicating that OppFi loans do not help borrowers transition to safer credit products but are used in conjunction with other predatory loans.

To read the new report and watch a “Behind the Report” video, go to: “Lost Opportunities: How OppFi Traps Borrowers in Unaffordable Debt.”

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About Oregon Consumer Justice (OCJ) is expanding and protecting consumer rights by advancing a justice movement that puts people first through policy, community engagement, and the law. Learn more at ocj.org.

About The Center for Responsible Lending
The Center for Responsible Lending is a non-partisan, nonprofit research and policy advocacy organization working to promote financial fairness and economic opportunity for all, end predatory lending, and close the racial wealth gaps.