The Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions just published data about car title loans made in Virginia in 2013 and it isn’t pretty.   Does it seem like there are a lot more car title loan stores than there were a year ago? That’s because we had a 23% increase in car title loan stores:  from 395 to 489.  The number of loans has increased over 10%: from 161,264 to 177,775.  Over 17,000 Virginians had their cars taken by car title lenders and many of those people lost their independence and their ability to work.

It’s obvious that many borrowers cannot afford these loans if you look at the 32% increase in repossessions and the huge amount of borrowers that at least 60 days behind in their monthly payments: 33,387 (that’s 18% of the loans made!).

Maybe it is time for the Virginia General Assembly to force car title lenders to do what all legitimate lenders must do—only loan to borrowers that have the ability to repay.