&gt;  Perhaps a better alternative would be a general credit line available to all Americans managed by the CFPB. The credit limit would be rather small, in the low hundreds, but would be higher for citizens with better credit scores.<p>I don&#x27;t think that helps much; if payday loans are really low-margin, CFPB won&#x27;t be able to offer better effective rates -- unless you are proposing that this is positive-cost taxpayer <i>subsidized</i> line of credit.