Many people now apply for and manage credit online via personal digital devices. This is happening across the consumer credit market, but it is particularly significant in high-cost short-term credit (HCSTC). In their study of payday lending, the Competition and Markets Authority found that over 80% of payday loan customers took out a loan online (CMA, Payday lending market investigation: final report, 2015).

The payday lending industry’s explosive growth has been attributed to this shift online, not only by increasing the availability of credit to many who were previously excluded by mainstream lenders, but by transforming the accessibility and instantaneity of credit. Consumers using personal mobile devices, like smartphones and laptops, can now search for, apply for and manage credit whilst at home, at work or on the move, at any time of the day or night, and receive funds within a matter of minutes or hours.

Reviews by the OFT (Fair Trading, Payday lending: compliance review final report, 2013) and CMA (Payday lending market investigation: final report, 2015) found the payday lending market to be exploitative, uncompetitive and non-compliant with laws and guidance at the time. This led to recent regulatory change to improve competition and conditions for consumers, including a total cost cap and new rules on debt collection practices (Financial Conduct Authority, Detailed rules for the price cap on high-cost short-term credit, 2014). Consumer organisations agree that the market has improved for consumers but say there is more that can be done around affordability assessments and responsible lending rules (Citizens Advice, Payday loans after the cap: are consumers getting a better deal?, 2016).

However, it is clear that reform to-date in the HCSTC market has not explicitly addressed the role of digital interfaces and devices in consumers’ access to credit and their relation to issues of consumer detriment. Its primary focus has been on total cost. This is despite the pervasiveness of online borrowing in the HCSTC market and the increasingly digitised nature of consumer credit and consumer spending more widely.

The research investigates how digital access to credit and use of digital devices is changing consumers’ borrowing practices and how this matters to people’s understandings and experiences of indebtedness. Whilst the research focuses on the HCSTC market, our findings are pertinent to wider issues around digital access to all types of consumer credit (especially as traditional ‘payday loan’ products are changing into longer-term instalment loans since regulation), the growth of fintech, and the use of personal mobile devices in everyday banking and money management.