2016 AARP Nebraska Survey of 18-Plus: Opinions on Payday Lending

A majority of Nebraskans believe that it is important to strengthen consumer protection laws to prohibit excessive annual interest rates for payday loans. Additionally, Nebraskans believe that the very high APRs (annual percentage rate) payday lenders in the state can charge consumers should be capped or limited.

After hearing that payday lenders in Nebraska can currently charge up to 461 percent annual percentage rate (APR) most (77%) Nebraskans age 18 and older support that the state law should be changed to prohibit annual interest rates above 36 percent.  Moreover, more than half (59%) of Nebraskans age 18-plus have a very or extremely negative opinion of payday lending institutions.

Key findings include the following:

• Nearly three-quarters of Nebraskans (74%) would be more likely to vote for a state candidate who supports additional regulation of the payday lending industry.  
  
  
• Nine in ten (90%) support requiring that all fees be prominently and clearly displayed for consumers.   
  
  
• When asked to consider various annual percentage rates that payday lending businesses should be able to charge consumers (with the national average being 25 percent), most (68%) indicate an APR of less than or equal to 25 percent would be the highest rate these loan businesses should be able to charge.

The AARP 2016 Nebraska Payday Lending Survey was conducted by Precision Opinion among residents of Nebraska age 18-plus. The survey collected the opinions of Nebraska residents on payday lending. Interviews were conducted in English by Precision Opinion from November 12, 2016 to November 30, 2016. This means that if 95 out of 100 samples of this same size and population were given this same survey, the responses to the questions would fall within a range of plus or minus 3.18 percentage points of what would have been obtained if every Nebraska resident age 18 and older were asked these same questions.  For more information contact Aisha Bonner Cozad at ABonner@aarp.org. 

Suggested Citation:

Bonner Cozad, Aisha. 2016 AARP Nebraska Survey of 18-Plus: Opinions on Payday Lending. Washington, DC: AARP Research, January 2017. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00152.001