Charla Rios ‌

Charla Rios Jun2022

Deputy Director of Research

Debt Collection & Settlement Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Charla Rios (Hodges) is the deputy director of research at the Center for Responsible Lending focusing on payday lending and predatory debt practices. Prior to working with CRL, Charla was a Senior Project Director at Counter Tools, a non-profit consulting organization devoted to advancing place-based public health, where she worked with states to utilize research and primary data to advance tobacco and food point of sale policies. Over her professional career, Charla has acquired skills such as administering surveys, facilitating focus groups and data interpretation.

Charla graduated with a B.S degree in Community Health Education and Ethnic Studies from East Carolina University and pursued a dual-Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning (Economic Development) and Public Health (Health Behavior) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She served as the 35th annual Minority Health Conference co-chair and was selected as a Lucy Morgan Fellow. In her spare time, Charla enjoys reading, hiking and making art.

Research & Policy

Upsold and Weighed Down: An Analysis of a Subset of Supervised Installment Lending in Colorado

Previous research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has revealed the harms associated with high-cost installment loans, which are often marketed to subprime borrowers and have annual percentage rates of interest (APRs) in excess of 36%. This paper explores a different segment of the installment loan market: loans made by consumer finance companies with rates at or below 36% APR that have larger, longer terms and are often packed with fees for low-value, high-cost add-on products. The costs of these products are not included in the loans’ APRs. Using a sample of 67 collections cases...
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Unsafe Harbor: The Persistent Harms of High-Cost Installment Loans

Over the past decade, the high-cost small-dollar loan market, once dominated by short-term balloon payment payday loans, has seen the rise of high-cost installment loans with longer terms. Payday loans are typically repaid in a lump-sum, usually due in 14-day periods. Installment loans tend to be larger in size and repaid in several installments, typically over a period of several months. Although they are repaid in installment terms, these loans share similar characteristics with other payday and car-title loans: a lack of underwriting; access to a borrower’s bank account or car as security...
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans

Debt Under Duress: The Economic Impacts of Bail Bonds on San Francisco Bay Area Residents

Nearly 500,000 people are currently detained pretrial in jails around the United States, in part due to high bail amounts set by the judicial system that individuals cannot afford. That is a six-fold increase in the U. S. pretrial population from the 1970s, when it was closer to 83,000 people detained. Bail is money required in exchange for release from jail while one awaits trial. With bail costs rising, it has been difficult for individuals and their loved ones to afford paying a court directly for the full bail amount. Instead, they have increasingly turned to for-profit bail bond companies...
Research
Debt Collection & Settlement

Bipartisan Support for Stopping Predatory High-Interest Loans

Morning Consult conducted a survey, commissioned by Center for Responsible Lending, of approximately 10,000 registered voters. The poll is presented as a short Powerpoint-style slide deck with key takeaways, charts, and maps. This poll presentation is linked to above and here . Key findings include: Seventy percent (70%) of voters support a 36% annual interest rate cap on payday and consumer installment loans. Over half (52%) of voters “strongly support” a 36% rate cap on payday loans. Similarly, forty-one percent (41%) of voters “strongly support” a 36% cap on consumer installment loans. The...
Research

The Sky Doesn't Fall: Life After Payday Lending in South Dakota

For more than a decade, payday loans, car-title loans, and high-cost installment loans in South Dakota have carried charges exceeding 300% annual percentage rate (APR). In 2016, South Dakotans approved lowering the cost of payday loans, car-title loans, and installment loans to an annual interest rate cap of 36%, inclusive of all fees and charges. The vote in favor of the rate cap was overwhelming. In policy discussions about highcost small dollar lending, one of the most frequently asked questions is: what happens when a state enacts a rate cap? This paper seeks to add to this body of...
Research

Payday and Car Title Lenders Drain Nearly $8 Billion in Fees Every Year

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 on other bills, involuntary loss of bank accounts, and even bankruptcy. For car-title loans, the end result is too often the repossession of the borrower’s car, a critical asset for many people...
Research
Payday and Other Small Dollar Loans