APR

A recent report by the Colorado Attorney General's Office on payday lending provides strong evidence that reforms enacted by the legislature in 2010 are working. Data for the last five months of the year – the period the reforms were in effect – suggest borrowers are paying much lower effective interest rates and are largely avoiding the cycle of debt that trapped many of them under the previous rules.

This report analyzes data from the Colorado attorney general and explains how payday lending harms working families. The report explores other options and shows that other states and the Department of Defense have applied restrictions to make the loans more fair.