Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO)

Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending

  • Visit www.yesonissue5.com for more.

  • Who?

    After a successful legislative campaign to place mortgage lending under Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act, the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending is turning its attention to the problem of payday lending in Ohio. A group of advocates, religious leaders, community groups, labor organizations and citizens like you, the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending is dedicated to fair and just lending practices by small loan lenders.

  • What?

    Payday lenders market their loans as short-term help for people in crisis. Data reveal, however, that only 1% of payday borrowers pay off their original loan in the standard two-week cycle. In fact, loans are deliberately structured to require borrowers to continue the cycle. For example, Judy, a recently divorced mother of two, took out a $300 loan that cost $45 in fees every two weeks. This became a $690 monthly payment which took nearly two years to finally pay off. This practice is the very foundation of the payday lending business model.

  • Why is this important?

    The number of payday lending shops has grown from 107 in 1996 to 1,562 today. Ohio now has more payday lending locations than McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants combined. The cost to Ohio borrowers in fees is estimated to be over $200 million annually. As Judy’s story reveals, this original $300 loan did not help her with a short term problem as marketed, but trapped her in long-term debt. Judy’s story is typical of a payday borrower. It is estimated that there are over 368,000 payday borrowers in Ohio, each with their own distressing story.

  • Join with Us!

    The Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending is a group of advocates, religious leaders, community groups, labor organizations and citizens dedicated to fair and just lending practices by small loan lenders. Join with us on this important campaign by completing the endorsement form provided here: For more information, please access the reports below or contact Tom Allio, Steering Committee chair at tallio@aol.com. If you have personal experience with payday lending to share, or for a copy of “What you can do in your local community,” please contact cathyjohnston@cohhio.org

    • More Information:

    • Trapped in Debt: County after CountyPDF — A County-by-County Payday Lending Impact Report, By The Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending County Specific Reports and Press Releases
    • Trapped by Design: Payday Lending by the NumbersPDF — An analysis by the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending
    • Trapped in Debt: The Growth of Payday Lending in Ohio HTM — A Joint Published Report by Policy Matters Ohio and Housing Research & Advocacy Center: The number of payday lending shops in Ohio catapulted from 107 locations from 1996 to 1562 locations in 2006, a more than fourteen-fold increase in a decade, according to a report from Policy Matters Ohio and the Housing Research and Advocacy Center. The report finds that payday lending shops are now more common than McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants combined in Ohio.
    • Financial Quicksand: Payday Lending Sinks Borrowers in Debt PDF — The Center for Responsible Lending in North Carolina published Every year, payday lenders strip $4.2 billion in excessive fees from Americans who think they’re getting a two-week loan. Instead, they end up trapped in debt. This report finds that across the nation payday borrowers are paying more in interest -- at annual rates of up to 400 percent -- than the amount of the loan they originally borrowed.
    • The Payday Lending Debt Trap: