What Communities Can Do to Rein in Payday Lending: Strategies for Successful Local Ordinance Campaigns Through a Texas Lens

Authors

Nathalie Martin, University of New Mexico - School of LawFollow
Robert Mayer

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Because New Mexico has one of the highest consumer usage rates and highest concentrations of payday and title loan shops in the nation,2 we thought it would be an ideal place to measure the public’s knowledge of and interest in these ubiquitous loans. We also measured knowledge of interest rate caps in the context of credit cards, as a point of comparison. Our data are consistent with that of previous studies showing that the general public overwhelmingly supports interest rate caps both in general and for certain types of loans. More uniquely, we also found that many consumers are unaware that there are no interest rate caps on many forms of consumer loans. These data are useful in explaining why consumers do not do more to change the law on interest rate caps.

Publication Title

Law and Contemporary Problems

Volume

80

Issue

3

First Page

175

Last Page

147

Recommended Citation

Nathalie Martin & Robert Mayer, What Communities Can Do to Rein in Payday Lending: Strategies for Successful Local Ordinance Campaigns Through a Texas Lens, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 175 (2017).
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/672