Huge Increase in B.C. Payday Loan Borrowers

People in B.C. are using payday loans more than any other province.

Between 2012 and 2014 payday loan borrowers in British Columbia grew 58 per cent and the number of B.C. people with more than 15 payday loans grew nearly 604 per cent.

There are more than 198,000 individuals in the province or 6.56 per cent that use these loans. That’s quite a jump compared to the 5.4 per cent of Albertans, 5.4 per cent of adults in Saskatchewan, 3.9 per cent of Manitobans, and 4 per cent of Ontarian adults that use these loans.

In 2014 there were 49,628 people with one loan, 77,416 with between two and five loans, and 40,509 people with between six and 10 loans.

The majority of these loan borrowers in B.C. say they need these loans to make ends meet. Almost 72 per cent of these people say if they were in need of $300 they would take out a new payday loan.

In British Columbia most of the loan borrowers are “working poor” individuals who are employed, yet live at or below the poverty line. These people are middle aged, somewhat indebted, and have completed some sort of post-secondary education.

Within the new report by the Vancouver City Savings Credit Union there are three recommendations.

The first recommendation is for each province to consider standardizing payday lending legislations. The second is for banks to provide small-dollar loans to customers, and the third is for people needing loans to make sure they’re doing their research and checking that these loans are licensed.