ARLINGTON, Va. (February 5, 2025)—The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) today released its latest batch of survey data, covering the entirety of 2024, which revealed that bank customers and credit union members are using alternative financial services in high numbers when they need small dollar credit. As has been the case with OLA’s previous data findings, while opponents of alternative lending products claim that banks and credit unions can fully meet consumers’ small dollar credit needs, consumers’ real-world financial decision-making suggests otherwise.
After analyzing data provided by five large installment lenders from calendar year 2024, covering nearly 2.5 million customers, OLA found that 77.4 percent had accounts at a bank and 22.6 percent had accounts at a credit union. In addition, 29 percent of customers from these installment lenders had an account at one of the six banks often cited as providing small dollar credit options—Bank of America, Huntington Bank, Regions Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.
“We continue to see that a significant percentage of consumers who use banks and credit unions—especially those with small dollar credit offerings—are finding fintech lenders to be a better fit for their financial situations,” said Online Lenders Alliance Chief Executive Officer Andrew Duke. “The fact that they continue to bypass the offerings at their financial institution highlights the importance of these products as an option when the need for credit arises.”
“As we have noted in the past, there are likely differing reasons that consumers are using a mix of traditional and alternative financial providers, but our data continues to show that they are explicitly choosing the products that our members offer as a significant part of their financial decision-making,” Duke continued.
A breakdown of the survey data is below:
| 2024 | |
| Share of customers at credit unions | 22.6% |
| Share of customers at all banks | 77.4% |
| Bank of America | 10% |
| Wells Fargo | 10% |
| Regions Bank | 3% |
| Huntington Bank | 2% |
| U.S. Bank | 2% |
| Truist | 1% |
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