Throughout the last five sessions, state lawmakers have done next to nothing to regulate title and payday loans in Texas. Legislators have allowed loan providers to keep offering loans for limitless terms at limitless prices (often a lot more than 500 percent APR) for the unlimited amount of refinances. The main one legislation the Texas Legislature managed to pass, last year, was a bill needing the storefronts that are 3,500-odd report statistics regarding the loans up to a state agency, work of credit Commissioner. That’s at least allowed analysts, advocates and journalists to take stock for the industry in Texas. We’ve got quite a good handle on its size ($4 billion), its loan volume (3 million deals in 2013), the fees and interest paid by borrowers ($1.4 billion), the number of vehicles repossessed by name lenders (37,649) and plenty more.
We’ve got 2 yrs of data—for 2012 and 2013—and that’s allowed number-crunchers to start in search of trends in this pernicious, but evolving market.
The left-leaning Austin think tank Center for Public Policy Priorities found that last year lenders made fewer loans than 2012 but charged significantly more in fees in a report released today. Specifically, the number of brand new loans fell by 4 %, nevertheless the fees charged on payday and title loans increased by 12 percent to about $1.4 billion. What’s happening, it seems through the information, could be the lenders are pushing their customers into installment loans as opposed to the conventional two-week single-payment payday loan or the auto-title loan that is 30-day. Continue reading “Texas Payday Lenders Charging Even More in Fees. Throughout the last five sessions, state lawmakers…”