Real Solutions - A National Credit Union Foundation Program

Rent to Own is generally understood to be a poor deal for consumers. Credit Union consumer loans are a replacement product but rarely do CUs market against RTO.

Do your members use payday lenders? If you think not, odds are you are wrong. Somewhere between 10% and 20% of credit union members opt to do at least some of their business with payday lenders. Why?

Perhaps it’s the fear of being turned down, knowing they may have credit issues. Perhaps your hours and location aren’t convenient when members need a loan. But more likely, it’s because you don’t have the right product—a small-dollar-value, short-term cash loan that can be accessed quickly and conveniently.

Written by Nancy Pierce Real Solutions Field Coach

The payday lending industry has enjoyed exponential growth over the last 12 years. Estimates of payday loan volume range from $28 billion to over $40 billion per year.

Doug tells the story of a real member’s struggle to make ends meet, and leads to this fact: “If someone’s going to offer an alternative to payday lenders it’s got to be credit unions because no one else is going to do it.” Also, here is a recent quote of Doug’s regarding REAL Solutions…

“Real Solutions has been an integral part of the success of StretchPay. In fact, StretchPay would not nearly be the success it is today without the involvement of Real Solutions. They good folks at Real Solutions gave StretchPay a voice in the national credit union community it could not have attained on its own. Real Solutions is as much a part of the success of StretchPay as are the credit unions offering the valuable payday loan alternative.”