Payday advance customers are the face of America: Men and women with families and jobs who sometimes have unbudgeted or unexpected expenses between paychecks and need small dollar, short-term credit to meet their obligations. In addition to a steady source of income, 100 percent of our customers have a checking account at a bank or credit union. And analysts estimate that 19 million households use short-term payday advances annually.
A Georgetown University McDonough School of Business study of the demographics of payday lending customers found that payday lending customers are:
Middle-Income
- Majority earn between $25,000 and $50,000
Middle-Educated
- 90 percent have a high school diploma or better
- 54 percent have some college or degree
Young Families
- 53 percent are under 45 years old (only 9 percent are 65 or older)
- Majority of customers are married
- 63 percent have children in household
Stable Working Class
- 32 percent own homes
- 54 percent have major credit cards
- 100 percent have steady incomes
- 100 percent have checking accounts