The Flex Loan, a type of payday loan pioneered by Advance Financial, has burdened low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders. Tennessee lawmakers declined to rein in the lending business, even as other states did.
  • Wave of Lawsuits: Since introducing the Flex Loan in 2015, Tennessee-based lender Advance Financial has filed over 110,000 lawsuits against its borrowers.
  • High Interest and Fees: Flex Loans offer borrowers up to $4,000 at 279.5% interest, trapping thousands of people in debt that can land them in court.
  • Sidestepped Federal Regulators: Advance Financial lobbied lawmakers to create the new Flex Loan to avoid federal consumer protection regulations.
  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    16·
    2 days ago

    The consequences of Flex Loans were predicted when the Tennessee legislature legalized them 10 years ago, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wanted to regulate products like Flex Loans when Congress created the agency in 2011. The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the CFPB are currently being reviewed by the courts.

    Exploitation on top of exploitation.