08-05-2025
The buck stops here: Accountability reporting on payday lenders in Tennessee
Nashville-based Advance Financial markets itself to Tennesseans as a solution for short-term financial needs, but has trapped many in a cycle of debt. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Life, for many Tennesseans, can change in an instant. A medical catastrophe, a car that breaks down, a death, can send families into financial emergency.
In my case, it came in 2016 when my husband amputated two fingers while using a table saw he'd used hundreds of times.
I was 45 minutes away at the time of the accident and when I arrived at the hospital, the first thing he asked was, 'Do we have insurance?'
We did, thank God. Both of us had started our own businesses and our insurance through the Affordable Care Act had kicked in just days prior, cutting what would have been a $30,000 out-of-pocket expense for the surgery necessary to reattach his fingers to $10,000.
I consider myself to be fortunate, even privileged. Growing up, I never had to worry about having a place to live or how my family would eat. We were middle class, and throughout my life, I've stayed in the middle class.
But middle class didn't mean that we had $10,000 lying around. We cobbled together most of it but were left stripped bare of funds to pay household bills and buy groceries. After exhausting every other option — including a trip to the pawn shop — we ended up, as so many other Tennesseans do, taking out a short-term loan from Advance Financial.
This lender said its loans would help Tennesseans. It has sued more than 110,000 of them.
Our story has a happy ending, because we were able to pay back the loan in full, in a mercifully brief period — merciful because even a quick payback comes with a 279.5% interest rate, which Advance couches as a 'customary fee.' Even so, Advance didn't make the payback process simple: there were only certain ways the company would accept payment and other hoops to jump through.
As the Lookout's Adam Friedman reports through a partnership with ProPublica, many other Tennesseans find themselves in uncertain or even desperate financial situations, and like I did, turn to Advance Financial to tide them over.
But at least 110,000 of them — more people than can fit into the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium — had worse outcomes.
For more than six months, Friedman has been investigating Advance Financial's business model and talking to people across the state who have been sued by the company.
Not only does the company charge exorbitantly high interest rates on a product called the Flex Loan, the Nashville-based business aggressively sues people who can't keep up with payments on the escalating loan amounts.
Among the people Friedman talked to was Tonya Davis, a Nashville woman who was the victim of identity theft. In 2018, Advance told Davis she owed on a loan. When she pointed out the Social Security number on the alleged loan didn't match hers, a company representative told her they would investigate it.
She heard nothing else until 2024, when Advance sued her for $4,800. The company won a default judgment, and Davis must pay Advance $175 per month.
Have you taken out a flex loan and struggled to pay it back? Have you been sued by Advance Financial, Harpeth Financial or another flex loan lender?
Reporters at the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica want to hear from you as they investigate flex loan lenders, who have sued more than 110,000 Tennesseans.
To share your experience, call or text us at 615-249-8509.
In East Tennessee, Rosita Hansen took out a loan in 2021 when her grandchildren moved in. Even with a full-time job, the extra expenses of clothing, food and school activities added up, and soon, she got behind on her mortgage.
Over 10 months, Hansen borrowed $4,385. She paid Advance $6,660 but the company said she still owed, and sued her. Her total costs, with the original loan, interest and legal fees, came to $8,272 — almost twice the amount she borrowed. Hansen declared bankruptcy, lost her house, and Advance continues to garnish her wages.
But this isn't just about Advance Financial. The Tennessee Legislature, which has authority to approve interest rates, in 2015 approved the Flex Loan. The bill creating the new type of loan was carried by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, then a state representative from Crossville.
Advance sought out lawmakers to create a measure that would skirt regulations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had already called out Tennessee payday lenders for offering loans to those who couldn't afford them.
Advance is also one of the biggest donors to Tennessee legislators, spending over $6 million on campaign contributions and lobbying since 2009.
Our mission at the Tennessee Lookout is to provide accountability journalism and Friedman's work is a prime example: He shows how business and politics can meet to create laws that damage Tennessee families. For what good is a loan, held out as a means to get by, if it doubles or triples in cost? How does it benefit a desperate borrower in the short term if the long-term consequences follow them for years?
This won't be Friedman's last story on payday lenders. You can look for a series continuing over the next few months.
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