Google AdWords to Ban Pay Day Loan Ads from July 13, 2016

Longer term loans, and lower interest rate loans unaffected

[engine]

Google is to ban pay day loan ads from AdWords from July 13, 2016. According to the new policy, longer term loans, and lower interest rate loans, such as mortgages, car loans, student loans, commercial loans, etc., will be unaffected.

on July 13, 2016: we’re banning ads for payday loans and some related products from our ads systems. We will no longer allow ads for loans where repayment is due within 60 days of the date of issue. In the U.S., we are also banning ads for loans with an APR of 36% or higher. When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that. Google AdWords to Ban Pay Day Loan Ads from July 13, 2016 [googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com]

[robzilla]

loans with an APR of 36% or higher

Ouch, that's a lot of interest! Good riddance.

[3zero]

This reminds me of the old Google and what I thought it stood for. GREAT DECISION!

[nomis5]

Ouch, that's a lot of interest! Good riddance.

Wonga in the UK are currently advertising an interest rate of 1,272% in Google. How come high interest ads are not banned in the UK.

[engine]

nomis5 i'm not sure there. I notice that it talks about updating its policies globally, so perhaps that's just a technical thing to stop a U.K. advertiser from running ads in the U.S.A. but there's nothing yet specific about the U.K., or any other region outside the U.S.A.

[Ecopac]

Let's be honest, they're about 2 years to late with this decision in the UK. Payday Loans are all but dead in the water here, everyone is offering short term installment loans (3 months plus) in a much more regulated and, frankly, different looking industry to what it was 2 years ago. They'll all still be allowed to advertise.

Price caps and fee caps ensure people can't get into the kind of bother they did back then.

Of course, Google didn't/don't mind taking up to £20 a click from the payday loan companies, they've profited from the industry as much as anybody else so I for one don't buy into the moral high ground they're trying to take here.

[tangor]

This is google pr as such loans have been illegal in the USA for quite some time. Only after threat of congressional investigations is this "do no evil" stance taken.... after all the evil that has passed until caught.

I am not impressed.

[textex]

I agree with tangor. While these loans are not illegal in all states, this is a publicity stunt based on self-concern. If they were so worried about the consumer they would eliminate organic not paid. The industry's organic is filled with crap and blackhat. And taking away the paid is going to push the payday people to get aggressive in organic results.

If they were to remove organic results and paid, then the user has no options and would resort elsewhere for their payday loan queries/needs. Which could equate to word of mouth exodus similar to the word of mouth that built google.

[engine]

textex, the organic SERPs for spammy pay day loans has been under scrutiny for some time. I would imagine that AdWords was being used for the same purpose.
Google Payday Loan search update to target spammy queries [webmasterworld.com] Jun 12, 2013
Google Launching Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Targeting Spammy Queries [webmasterworld.com] Jun 12, 2014

[J_RaD]

to hell with these slim ball businesses! OUT OUT OUT!

this is a publicity stunt based on self-concern. If they were so worried about the consumer they would eliminate organic not paid. The industry's organic is filled with crap and blackhat. And taking away the paid is going to push the payday people to get aggressive in organic results.

but...this really

All this is, is a web censoring slippery slope... if they start to bad this..what will stop them from others they don't like in the future.. even competition (which they already do)
You have to cut these businesses down at the ROOT, not the leaves