Are There Any States That Don’t Allow Car Title Loans?
Each state on its own will determine what type of title lending regulations to set. They can outright ban car title loans, limit the amount you can borrow, or hold off on regulations altogether. A few states don’t necessarily allow you to use your vehicle equity as collateral, but they have loopholes where you can may still be able to get cash for your car even if there are rules that https://loansolution.com/title-loans-hi/ seem to ban title loans. Let’s look at California for this example. In CA, you can often get approved for financing on loan amounts between $2,500 and $10,000. A while back, the State legislature capped interest rates on amounts below $2,500, and you don’t see many companies providing loans under that amount.
A recent regulatory update in California promises to completely change the game in terms of how loans are issued. With the passage of AB 539, the State legislature has capped interest rates at 36% for all loans under 10k. While this law has not yet gone into effect, Assembly Bill 539 will surely limit the number of loans available to people who surely need fast cash. Most lenders have already said they are going to pull out of the market as it’s not possible to offer to finance with title loan rates below 36%.
Some States Currently Ban Title Loans All Together
There are a number of states that don’t allow online car title loans, but they do offer similar types of funding. We are not going to list all the specific states in this article that ban equity loans. But we will give a few examples and break down what the rules are. Some states like Kansas do not allow auto title lenders to provide funds. However, there are ways to work around this. Some companies will offer instant car title loans online and market these as open-ended credit loans or cash advances. Interest rates are very high with these online loans and there’s no cap on the amount that can be lent. Other states, like New York and Massachusetts, completely ban all types of car title loans. No matter how hard you try or how committed you are, there’s really no chance you can use your vehicle as collateral in those states. In addition to banning companies that offer online title loans, they also restrict payday loans, installment loans, and most other kinds of cash advances.
What Title Loan Regulations Can We Expect in the Future?
It will be interesting to see what happens on the federal level when it comes to short term lending regulations. These include payday loans and title loans without an inspection. The CFPB and FTC have long promised to regulate these industries but nothing has been put into motion yet. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau claims to regulate any title loan company across the country. But there have yet to be strict regulations for lenders that offer auto title loans. Further, these guidelines and restrictions would need to pass court challenges and other roadblocks that you can bet would occur. It seems the current administration is fine with letting the individual states set regulations and monitor the loan rates and restrictions for the respective state. One thing to watch for is what happens with new laws for borrowers who can’t pay their title loan payments. Because of the pandemic and nationwide shutdown many consumers simply can’t pay their bills and a lot of these loans are going to come due quickly.
Janet Patterson is VP of Marketing Communications for Highway Title Loans and the feature editor of its Lending Blog. Janet has worked in the financial service industry for over a decade, with 7 years of experience in the car title loan industry. She previously managed a customer service team that helped and advised consumers on all their lending related questions and concerns.