Coalition Letter to Legislature: Oppose Rent-to-Own Giveaway in State Budget

Coalition letter urging state legislators to oppose any motion to weaken consumer protections related to rent-to-own (“RTO”) financial transactions as the legislature finalizes the 2015-17 biennial budget.

TO: Members, Joint Committee on Finance

CC: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos

RE: Oppose Rent-to-Own Giveaway in State Budget

                               

June 29, 2015

Dear Member of the Joint Committee on Finance,

The undersigned groups respectfully urge you to oppose any motion to weaken consumer protections related to rent-to-own (“RTO”) financial transactions as the legislature finalizes the 2015-17 biennial budget. After failing in past legislative sessions to enact laws that would water down Wisconsin consumer protections in RTO transactions, predatory lenders have in recent years attempted to win back-door changes through the budget process.

Rent-to-own transactions constitute high-interest loans marketed primarily to low-income consumers, including military families, and increasingly to middle-class Americans. Under RTO agreements, customers agree to make weekly or monthly payments in order to immediately take home merchandise – usually furniture, appliances or consumer electronics. Customers have the option to make a series of required payments in order to own the merchandise outright, or to return the merchandise at any time and cancel their contracts with no further obligations; the bulk of RTO marketing, however, is based on the promise of ownership. RTO stores do not require down payments, nor do they perform credit checks, which makes these agreements particularly attractive to customers with poor or no credit.

RTO transactions have been held by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to be credit transactions. As such, the Wisconsin Consumer Act currently requires RTO businesses to disclose annual percentage rates (APR) related to these transactions — a crucial requirement to maintain transparency and fairness in the marketplace.

In 2013, WISPIRG conducted a survey of five rent-to-own stores in the Rockford, Illinois area, where RTO businesses are exempt from the important protections offered by the Wisconsin Consumer Act. WISPIRG staff compared the cost of rent-to-own products to the cost of buying the same or similar goods at major appliance and electronics retailers, finding that RTO businesses charged between two to seven times the market value of the products on offer. Additionally, the RTO stores surveyed charged an average effective APR of 221 percent, with effective APRs ranging from 138 percent to 370 percent for the products surveyed. All RTO stores surveyed charged effective APRs of over 100 percent — more than five times the prevailing credit card rates of less than 20 percent.

In previous state budget negotiations, the RTO industry has sought Wisconsin Consumer Act exemptions that would treat rent-to-own transactions as leases, rather than credit sales. Doing so would reduce market transparency and strip consumers of vital protections, with detrimental impacts particularly for low-income families and individuals.

We respectfully urge you to resist any such attempts in order to maintain the fairness and transparency of Wisconsin’s consumer financial marketplace.

Sincerely,

 

Wisconsin Catholic Conference

WISDOM

Madison-Area Urban Ministry

Catholic Charities of the Milwaukee Archdiocese

Diocese of Superior Catholic Charities Bureau

Diocese of Green Bay Catholic Charities

Diocese of La Crosse Catholic Charities

Diocese of Madison Catholic Charities

Society of St. Vincent de Paul Archdiocesan Council of Milwaukee

Society of St. Vincent de Paul Diocesan Council of Madison

Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, Inc.

University of Wisconsin Law School Consumer Law Clinic

Fair Housing Center of Greater Madison

Fair Housing Center of Northeast Wisconsin

Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council

Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin, Inc.

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin

Wisconsin Community Action Program Association (WISCAP)

League of Women Voters of Wisconsin

WISPIRG

Citizen Action of Wisconsin

One Wisconsin Now

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