Reliable numbers on illegal lending are hard to find, which is exactly why they matter. This page collects the best available statistics on loan sharks, high-cost lending, and the financial pressure that drives people to both, each with a link to its primary source. Journalists, researchers, and educators are welcome to cite any figure here with a link back to this page.
The pressure that creates borrowers
63% of American adults could cover a $400 emergency expense entirely with cash or its equivalent in 2024, meaning roughly one in three could not, per the Federal Reserve Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report. That share was 68 percent in 2021.
4.2% of U.S. households, about 5.6 million, had no bank account at all in 2023, a record low but still millions of families outside mainstream credit, per the FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households.
~14% of U.S. households were underbanked in 2023, holding a bank account but still relying on services like payday loans, check cashing, or pawn loans, per the same FDIC survey.
The legal high-cost market
~400% APR is the annualized cost of a typical payday loan charging $15 per $100 for two weeks, per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
4 in 5 payday loans are rolled over or renewed within 14 days, the CFPB found in its landmark payday lending research, meaning the two-week loan is in practice a long-term product. Source: CFPB, 2014.
12 million Americans take out payday loans in a typical year, spending billions on fees, per Pew Charitable Trusts research.
1 in 5 single-payment auto title loan borrowers ends up losing their vehicle to repossession, per the CFPB 2016 single-payment title loan study. See our guide to title loans.
Illegal lending today
The United States keeps no official count of loan shark borrowing, which is itself worth knowing. The most rigorous modern estimate comes from England, where the government funds a dedicated Illegal Money Lending Team:
1.08 million people in England may be borrowing from an illegal money lender, per the Centre for Social Justice 2022 report Swimming with Sharks, several times higher than earlier official estimates.
2 in 5 adults admitted concealing a financial product such as a loan or credit card from a loved one, per survey data in the same CSJ report, the secrecy that lets illegal lending stay invisible.
Digital first: the CSJ documents illegal lenders increasingly operating through social media and messaging apps, some with fake paperwork and company registrations to appear legitimate, the pattern our guide to identifying a loan shark is built around.
The legal lines
36% APR is the interest cap the Military Lending Act sets for loans to active-duty service members and their families, and the threshold most consumer advocates use to define affordable small credit. Source: CFPB.
28% APR is the maximum a federal credit union can charge on a payday alternative loan, the product built to replace payday borrowing, per NCUA rules.
25% per year is the rate above which unauthorized lending becomes criminal usury in New York, one example of the state laws covered in are loan sharks illegal?
Up to 20 years in federal prison is the maximum penalty for collecting extensions of credit by extortionate means under 18 U.S.C. ยง 894, part of the 1968 statutes written to break the organized crime lending rackets.
The historical numbers
10% to 20% per month was the going rate charged by the salary lenders of the 1890s to 1910s, the original American loan sharks, dressed up in fees to evade usury laws. See the history of loan sharks.
1,040% APR is the annualized equivalent of the classic six-for-five street loan, five dollars borrowed against six repaid a week later. Run any variation in our loan shark debt calculator.
Citing this page
Each statistic above links to its primary source, and we encourage checking the original before citing. When referencing this compilation, please link to this page so readers can find the sources. Figures are updated as new editions of the underlying surveys are published.
This page is general information, not legal or financial advice. Last reviewed August 2026.