Car Title Lending in the News

The Debt Trap Drives the Fee Drain: Payday and Car-Title Lenders Drain Nearly $3 Billion in Fees Every Year | Center for Responsible Lending, June 15, 2023

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Note: Fees lost to AZ Car Title loans now estimated at $9,156,242.20 annually

"In the 31 states that allow for single-payment and payday installment loans, these loans drain more than $2.2 billion in fees each year from borrowers who have an average annual income of approximately $25,000. Car-title loans drain more than $700 million in fees annually from people in 17 states. Together, these predatory loan products drain nearly $3 billion annually."

 

CFPB Orders TitleMax to Pay a $10 Million Penalty for Unlawful Title Loans and Overcharging Military Families  CFPB Press Release | February 23, 2023

"Repeat offender doctored information, ignored military protection law, and levied fees for useless products"

How Title Lenders Trap Poor Americans in Debt With Triple-Digit Interest Rates | by Margaret Coker, The Current, and Joel Jacobs, ProPublica, with research by Mollie Simon, ProPublica, Nov. 14, 2022

2024 Update to Car Title Lending in Arizona

 

The Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, a nonprofit organization based in Tucson, has issued an update to their report on title lending in Arizona.

2024 Update to:"Still Wrong: Wrecked by Debt" | CEI, May, 2024

 

Prior updates.

2023 Update | CEI, January, 2023

2022 Update | CEI, March, 2022

2021 Update | CEI, February, 2021

 

2022 Video by Pastor Randy Reynolds

 

Related: I Need Cash Now, What Can I Do?  |  Wildfire AZ, 2021

The previous report on title lending in Arizona was issued in 2019.

STILL WRONG: Wrecked by Debt | CEI, August 4, 2019

Press Release | CEI, August 5, 2019

Arizona Coalition Ends Measure to End Predatory Car Title Lending

Press Release | AFL, February 3, 2020 

Arizona PBS Horizon interview with Kelly Griffith of CEI | August 15, 2019

Press Release | CEI, May 15, 2019

Payday Loan Debt Trap Tracker

Consumer protections for payday and car-title loans, created by the previous leadership of the CFPB after years of research, were due to take effect on Aug. 19, 2019. Now, these latter-day loan sharks will trap more borrowers in vicious cycles of debt.

 

Since Director Kathy Kraninger has sided with the sharks and turned her back on consumers, American borrowers caught in this infamous debt trap have paid fees amounting to:

(click here to see the amount)