How Title Lenders Trap Poor Americans in Debt With Triple-Digit Interest Rates.

As the nation's largest title lender, TitleMax thrives on an innovative business model that lends money to risky clients in exchange for collateral: the title to the vehicle in which the customers drove to the store. Georgia has emerged as a critical profit center for TitleMax, with some stores making more than $1 million in gross revenue per year, according to tax documents and former store managers who requested anonymity to speak about internal company procedures. A similar attempt in Georgia in 2020 died after TMX Finance's then-chief legal officer testified at a state senate committee hearing that TitleMax needed to charge high interest rates given the risk profile of its customers. [Extracted from the article]