How to Loan Money to Strangers without Getting Your Butt Handed to You.
“The street-smart playbook for payday loan profits without getting your butt handed to you.”
If you’re still lending money the same way you did five years ago, you’re already bleeding and you don’t even know it yet.
“WARNING: Most payday lenders bleed profits daily and don’t even know it.
If you can’t name your top 10 KPIs right now, your portfolio is leaking money, your collectors are flying blind, and your marketing budget is being mugged in broad daylight.
This no-BS workbook exposes 60+ critical KPIs every lender MUST track to survive in 2025.
Download it or risk becoming a case study in ‘what went wrong.’”
While regulators, algorithms, and fintech cowboys are rewriting the rules of payday lending, most operators are sleepwalking toward extinction.
This isn’t just another blog post.
It’s a tactical, field-tested survival guide for anyone still bold enough to lend to strangers, and smart enough to want to profit without getting their butt handed to them.
Miss this, and don’t say you weren’t warned.
Before you fund another loan, you need to ask yourself one brutal question:
Are you flying blind?
Because in payday lending, it’s not just about how much money you put on the street, it’s about how fast, how often, and how predictably it comes back.
That’s where KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] come in. Not the fluffy metrics your LMS vendor brags about, but the non-negotiables that separate high-margin operators from cash-burning amateurs.
These are just a few of the 50+ payday loan KPIs you must track daily or risk bleeding profit, compliance, and market share by the hour.
🟢 DAILY LOAN ORIGINATION & SALES KPIs
- Daily Loan Fundings
Definition: Total number of loans funded in a single day.
Why It Matters: Tells you how fast your front-end engine is producing. Fundings are your oxygen. If this number slows, everything else downstream suffers.
Example:
- Loans funded today: 62
- Math: 62 loans funded
- Total Funded Dollars
Definition: Total cash disbursed in loan principal per day.
Why It Matters: Measures capital deployment and loan volume growth. This number reflects how much of your working capital is being utilized.
Example:
- 62 loans × $425 = $26,350 funded
- Average Loan Size
Definition: Average principal per loan funded.
Why It Matters: Helps set capital utilization targets and detect shifts in borrower demand.
Example:
- $26,350 total funded / 62 loans = $425 average loan size
- Number of Applications Received
Definition: Total loan applications received daily.
Why It Matters: Measures top-of-funnel marketing and demand. Falling app volume often signals weak lead gen or poor ad targeting.
Example:
- 200 loan applications received
- Approval Rate
Definition: Percentage of applications approved.
Why It Matters: Measures underwriting efficiency and lead quality.
Example:
- 120 approvals / 200 applications = 0.6 = 60% approval rate
- Decline Rate
Definition: Percentage of applications declined.
Why It Matters: High decline rates can indicate bad marketing sources, fraud, or overly tight underwriting.
Example:
- 80 declines / 200 apps = 40% decline rate
- First Payment Default Rate (FPD)
Definition: Loans that default before the first scheduled payment.
Why It Matters: A red-flag indicator of fraud, broken lead funnels, or predatory borrowers.
Example:
- 10 FPDs out of 300 funded loans = 10 / 300 = 3.33% FPD rate
- Lead Conversion Rate
Definition: Percentage of inbound leads that convert to funded loans.
Why It Matters: Critical for measuring the ROI of your advertising and website funnel.
Example:
- 400 leads, 100 funded = 100 / 400 = 25% lead conversion rate
- Cost Per Funded Loan (CPFL)
Definition: Total marketing and processing cost per funded loan.
Why It Matters: Tells you if your marketing machine is bleeding cash or building profits.
Example:
- $8,500 spent / 100 loans = $85 per funded loan
- Auto-Decision Rate
Definition: Percentage of applications processed automatically without human underwriter intervention.
Why It Matters: Shows how scalable and efficient your tech stack is.
Example:
- 320 apps out of 400 approved automatically = 320 / 400 = 80% auto-decision rate
- Manual Review Rate
Definition: Percentage of applications requiring human underwriting.
Why It Matters: Indicates how many files are slowing down your system. More manual reviews = slower operations and higher costs.
Example:
- 80 manually reviewed apps / 400 total = 20% manual review rate
- Applicant Fraud Rate
Definition: Percentage of applications flagged or declined due to fraud.
Why It Matters: Tracks quality of lead sources and effectiveness of ID verification tools.
Example:
- 12 fraud cases / 300 apps = 4% applicant fraud rate
- Funding by Channel (Storefront vs. Online)
Definition: Distribution of loans funded across different channels.
Why It Matters: Helps optimize operations, staffing, and marketing spend by channel.
Example:
- 60 loans funded in-store, 90 online = 40% in-store, 60% online
- Average Days to First Payment
Definition: Average number of days between loan funding and the borrower’s first payment.
Why It Matters: Impacts short-term cash flow and recovery timelines.
Example:
- Loan A = 11 days, Loan B = 10 days, Loan C = 9 days → Average = (11 + 10 + 9) / 3 = 10 days
📊 PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE KPIs
(Grab your copy: The Full set of remaining 40+ KPIs LINK)
If you’re serious about lending money to strangers without getting your butt handed to you, these KPIs aren’t optional, they’re your lifeline.
Track them.
Obsess over them.
Build your entire operation around them.
The payday loan business isn’t for the timid, lazy, or the clueless.
But if you want to master the game, I’ve already built the playbook.
Grab your copy of my 500+ page payday loan “bible” – the most comprehensive, brutally honest guide ever written on how to loan money to strangers profitably.
And while you’re at it, download my FREE KPI Cheat Sheet that our top operators use to grow faster, collect smarter, and dominate their markets.
👉 Click here to get the Payday Loan Bible & The 50+Payday Loan KPI Cheat Sheet now.
(Your competitors already did.)