Trapped in Debt: The Growth of Payday Lending in Ohio

The number of payday lending shops in Ohio catapulted from 107 locations in 1996 to 1562 locations in 2006, a more than fourteen-fold increase in a decade, according to this 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. Once concentrated in troubled urban centers, payday lending locations have now become ubiquitous across the Ohio landscape, appearing in all but two Ohio counties. The high-interest, high-fee loans pushed at these locations often lead borrowers into a destructive cycle of debt. The report ends with recommendations to rein in this disturbing form of credit.