Research

Debt collection efforts around the United States rely heavily on litigation to collect past due debt. The ease of obtaining default judgments and garnishment orders has led debt buyers to use the courts as a critical tool for extracting payments from consumers, despite the lack of documentation showing that the consumer actually owes the amount claimed. Debt buyers are skilled...

Existing racial wealth gap increases burden of student loan debt on Black families and communities: This means families of color are more likely to need to borrow for higher education, will have less income with which to pay it, and have less of a cushion to withstand future financial shocks, thus contributing to a higher likelihood of delinquency and default...

By the Stop the Debt Trap Alliance of Oregon, in partnership with the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) In 2006, when Oregonians noticed the devastating impact payday and car-title lending was having on their communities, a coalition pushed for a change in the state laws, bringing new consumer protections to hundreds of thousands of people in the state. This example...

On this tenth anniversary of the financial crisis, there have been many retrospectives on the US government’s response to that catastrophe, with more to come. The commentary to date has largely focused on the extraordinary measures taken to prevent a much deeper collapse of the American and global economies. Measures were implemented to address the immediate crisis and reduce the...

Nearly 74 million people, about a quarter of the United States population, live in rural areas. That includes 15 million people of color. But according to the authors of a new paper published by the Center on Regulation and Markets at Brookings, these families are often overlooked in policy discussions on proposed changes to the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), which...

Florida is fertile ground for studying for-profit education, given the industry’s outsized presence there and a weak state regulatory environment. In the early summer of 2017, The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) conducted focus groups in Orlando, Florida with 75 individuals who had attended for-profit colleges within the last 10 years and borrowed to finance their education. The research sought...

In recent years, payday lenders have drained over half a billion dollars in fees from Michigan consumers to out-of-state companies. By charging APRs over 340%, payday lenders cost Michigan consumers over $94 million in 2016 and over $513 million over the past five years. Over two-thirds of Michigan payday stores have headquarters out of state. Michigan payday lenders disproportionately locate...

A recent poll conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting shows overwhelming concern among voters regarding the level of student debt. Across parties, a majority of voters agree that the amount of student loan debt represents a crisis, with 71% of Democrats, 67% independents, and 57% of Republicans in agreement. Almost three in five independents (58%) strongly agree...

According to new data released recently by the FDIC, the largest banks in America collected $11.45 billion in overdraft and non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees from American consumers in 2017, an increase of approximately $10 million over the 2016 total. Overdraft fees often impose a great burden on those already living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet. Typically, a...

The “Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act of 2018,” introduced by Senators Booker and Brown, would address extremely high-cost overdraft fees financial institutions charge on checking accounts. Banks’ overdraft practices exploit the financially vulnerable, leaving them worse off and driving many from the banking system altogether. The bill would establish reasonable safeguards for checking account holders; restore transparency to the checking account...