Our founder’s newsletter, the Consumer Finance Breakdown, has a new post. It dives into a new type of lending product, which is advertising heavily on digital platforms like TikTok.

The next post, I Got a TikTok Ad for a Payday Loan, starts with Installmt’s founder coming across an ad on TikTok for a slew of new consumer budgeting apps. The apps heavily emphasize their “interest-free, no-fee cash advance” option to help tie their users over until their next paycheck. Yet, while this seems like a totally altruistic product, the overall cost structure of these cash advances are eerily similar to payday loans. After running interest calculations that account for all fees associated with the apps, these advances charge APRs far higher than the well-regulated traditional installment loans that Installmt works with.

Here at Installmt, our mission is to reduce Americans’ reliance on predatory financial products like payday loans by helping better-regulated lenders extend credit to more borrowers. Some apps are offering new options to borrow money, but just because something has a new name doesn’t mean it’s a new thing.

You can find the full Substack at installmt.substack.com or in the footnotes of this page.