Payday Loan Industry Outreach Campaign Educates Consumers About Cash Advances

The paydayloan industry has been providing short-term personal loans to consumers for
over two decades. However, as the industry grew to offer more than $40 billion
in payday loans annually, its community outreach program was disproportionate
to its growth. Now the Community Financial Services Association of America
(CFSA) is remedying this deficiency.
CFSA is thelargest payday advance lending trade organization in America. Currently, it
represents more than half of all cash advance loan lenders in the nation, as
such engenders confidence of the fast cash loan industry. The trade
organization has grown in influence and is the main spokesman for payday
lending.
Recently,the merits of personal loans have met with resistance by some consumer groups
and states. To counter the actions of personal loan opponents, the CFSA has
enhanced its efforts through a marketing outreach campaign.
Historically,the payday industry has not placed emphasis on marketing outreach campaigns that
targets the consumer directly through mass media channels. The industry wants
to challenge the generic notions of critics by presenting the industry’s bona
fides to the public directly through the community marketing outreach program.
The tradeorganization has spent millions on an education campaign on television making
consumers aware of the industry’s new best practices. The Best Practices build
upon an original set of practices rolled out in the year2000 and are intended
to enhance the general public’s understanding of cash advance loans, online
payday loans, and faxless payday advance.
Also, theCFSA has implemented new guidelines for its members to increase transparency
and confidence in payday loans. The members are required to display payday
advance interest rates, finance fees, and penalties on a prominently placed
signage of regulation height and width. These actions by the industry finally
build upon the sentiments of the CFSA that it strives for transparency in the
loan application process, and that it wants to alleviate any public
misconceptions about the industry.
The mediamarketing campaign on television stars real-life payday loan consumers. The
campaign is meant to highlight the real face of fast cash loans, the face of
millions of loan borrowers. Complementing the TV ads on CNN, ESPN, Fox News,
TNT, and Headline News are Print ads in the newspaper USA Today. The
multi-million dollar campaign incorporates several mass mediums, including TV,
print, radio, and online advertising.
Theindustry hopes that the outreach marketing campaign gets the message out to the
public, that the industry is committed to transparent responsible lending.