Americans Turn To Payday, Title Loans To Pay For Pet Care

New study reveals 83% have actually needed to obtain money a minimum of as soon as to pay veterinary expenses

Most people concur that animals belong to the family.

But much like human healthcare, animal healthcare is costly. And as rates continue to stay high and salaries are stagnant, an animal health problem or mishap can be economically ravaging. Many just can’t manage it.

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In reality, 83% of animal owners have actually needed to obtain money at some time to spend for pet care. Almost 32% have actually needed to decrease treatment for their animal since they just couldn’t afford it. About 8% of those pets ended up dying of natural causes and more than 5% had to be euthanized because owners couldn’t afford treatment. And 31% have used a payday loan or title loan to pay.

Social media is filled with heartbreaking reports of people struggling to afford pet care.

There’s the woman in Louisiana who took on more than $3,500 in CareCredit debt to pay for care for a kitten that was found in the yard, abandoned by its mother.

Or the woman in Texas who could not manage treatment for her dog after the animal was shot by a neighbor. Her application for CareCredit was denied, and she turned to pet rescues, including Dallas-based Doodle Dandy Rescue, for help raising the money to pay for treatment. The dog, named Ellie, survived.

February 20 is National Love Your Pet Day. To mark this, Credit Summit set out to learn more about how we pay for pet care. We surveyed 1,200 Americans to learn more about the financial impact. Here’s what we found:

Key Takeaways

• Many are struggling to pay for pet care:

Almost 32% said they had to decline treatment for their pet because they couldn’t afford it. Of that group, about 8% said their pet wound up passing away of natural causes and more than 5% needed to have actually the pet euthanized. Of dog and cat owners, 7.5% waited for the pet to die of natural causes and 5% had the pet euthanized.

• We’re turning to payday lenders:

A little over 31% of Americans have utilized some type of predatory loan to cover routine pet care, with 21% using a payday advance and 10% using a title loan. Another 15% applied for CareCredit — a line of credit with an APR that averages 26.99% — through their vet.

An additional 12% of survey takers used a standard installment loan and another 4% said they borrowed money but were unsure what kind of loan they got.

• Predatory loans are routine:

Of Americans who used payday or title loans, 37% said they did it once to cover a animal emergency, 27% use payday or title loans for vet care once or twice a year, 14% use them once every few months and 5% use them for animal costs monthly.

Read the complete report here.