Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons^™

Debt Delivered: The Predatory Inclusion Of A Rent-To-Own Chain In The Treasure Valley, Jeff Cates

Masters Theses

This thesis is a study of customers at a rent-to-own (RTO) firm in Boise, Idaho, where I worked and collected data for nearly three years. RTOs are companies that offer higher-end electronics, appliances, and furniture to customers on a contract where the consumer receives the product immediately and pays a (usually highly marked-up) price over time by making small weekly or monthly payments. While predatory lending practices have long been studied by scholars from various fields, very little work has focused on the rent-to-own industry, which may have unique differences from payday lending and other similar businesses. This thesis centers …