182 – Why Payday Loans Won’t Go Away

In early February, we released updated research that shows 3 in 10 Ontario insolvencies involve payday loans. Payday loans have been a fairly popular discussion in 2018, as the Government of Ontario changed laws lowering the cost of borrowing for these types of loans and the City of Hamilton stepped in to be the first municipality in Ontario to limit the number of payday loan locations.

Yet despite all the warnings and changes, payday loan use among our clients is on the rise. Why aren't these changes working? Why are indebted Ontarians in fact taking out bigger and bigger loans from payday loan companies?  To answer these questions and discuss the unintended consequences of recent changes to the payday loan industry, I talk with my co-founder and fellow payday loan antagonist Ted Michalos.