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ARTICLE · 28 MAY 2021

CFPB Issues Report On Consumer Use Of Alternative Financial Services

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As part of its Making Ends Meet survey, the CFPB issued a report last week on how consumers use payday, auto title, and pawn loans ("alternative financial services" or "AFS")...

United StatesConsumer Protection
Jennifer Aguilar
Jennifer Aguilar
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As part of its Making Ends Meet survey, the CFPB issued a report last week on how consumers use payday, auto title, and pawn loans ("alternative financial services" or "AFS") and the other sources of credit available to them. Consumers surveyed include only those with a traditional credit record and the sampling focused on consumers with lower credit scores, recent credit delinquencies, or living in rural areas.

Many consumers who obtained an AFS product in 2019 were found to still be using AFS products in 2020. The 2019 survey asked consumers whether they had obtained an AFS product within the previous 6 months and found the following use rates: 4.4% for payday loans (defined as "a loan that you must repay, make a payment on, or rollover on your next payday"), 2% for auto title loans and 2.5% for pawn loans. Of those who used an AFS product in the past six months, at the time of the survey 63% still owed on a payday loan, 83% still owned on an auto title loan

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