Avoid the Pitfalls of Borrowing From a Payday Lender

Ohio’s working families pay millions of dollars in excessive fees every year, as payday lenders across the state routinely flip small cash advances into long-term, high-cost loans with annual interest rates in the range of 391%. The average payday borrower pays $800 to borrow $325. Current Ohio law does not protect Ohio families from payday lending traps. According to a recent national study, payday lending costs Ohioans $209 million annually.

  The Facts

In 2006, there were 1,562 payday lender locations in Ohio (up from 107 in 1996—almost a 1500% increase)!

Ohio has more payday lending locations than McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s Restaurants combined!

86 of 88 Ohio Counties have at least one payday lender location.

Payday loans are marketed as short term loans for those in crisis, but are intentionally structured so that borrowers continually have difficulty paying them off. 99 percent of borrowers become trapped in a cycle of debt! Borrowers pay the equivalent of 300% to 400% APR on these loans!

Payday lending traps 368,785 Ohio families annually in a cycle of chronic borrowing! Ohio recently “de-regulated” its payday lending regulations, thus raising the maximum level of payday loans from $500 to $800.

Payday lending has become a $40 billion industry nationwide!

Over half of payday revenues are extracted from borrowers who take out 13 or more loans per year.

The best way to not become a part of some of the statistics referenced above it to avoid becoming involved with a payday lender in the first place.