Written by: Eric Bank
Edited by: Lillian Guevara-Castro
Reviewed by: Adam West
Key Takeaways
- Twenty-five percent of OppFi customers indicate a lack of adequate emergency savings, marking an enduring need for short-term, regulated credit products.
- OppFi's new Model 6 underwriting platform uses cash flow data to responsibly underwrite more borrowers yet enables greater accessibility without reliance on FICO scores.
- Subprime customers are more resilient than expected: CEO Todd Schwartz reports on resilient subprime customers, sentiment gains with stabilization of macroeconomic environment.
When OppFi published its Spring 2025 Financial Health Survey, its findings were bleak. Twenty-five percent said they had fewer than one week’s worth of emergency savings. About 70% stated they saved less due to inflation and tariffs, with many fearing they couldn’t afford essentials.
OppFi offers installment loans under its brand of OppLoans through a proprietary underwriting platform built to evaluate customers under-served by mainstream credit.
In the survey, it reaffirmed what OppFi says it has previously seen on the ground: that credit access helps borrowers avoid expensive alternatives like overdrafts or payday loans.
The survey also points to continued demand for safe, regulated credit.
“There is a massive segment of customers — virtually 60 million Americans — who do not have access to unsecured credit,” stated Todd Schwartz, CEO and Founder of OppFi, in an interview with BadCredit.org. “We believe consumers need a choice. As long as it is regulated and transparent, there need to be guardrails, not roadblocks.”
Survey Research Shows Ongoing Vulnerability
The survey, conducted via Qualtrics using the FinHealth Score® framework, polled OppFi customers earlier this year. It attempts to capture customer sentiment and behavior with respect to how they spend, save, borrow, and plan. OppFi also has its own set of questions as a complement to the eight-question score.
Two-thirds reported saving less since the start of the year, while about 75% had more than a week of savings available. Most of the concerns included economic strains like inflation and trade tariffs.
Sentiment data is as relevant as raw economic data, said Schwartz. “Perception is reality,” he said. “When you’ve got consumers feeling insecure about themselves, they step back. Spending languishes, and it drags on the economy as a whole, and it can spiral down. That’s why we watch sentiment so obsessively.”
Model 6 Expands with Cash Flow
OppFi has been launching its underwriting Model 6 platform from early 2024 after a decade of research and development.
While models before this one strongly focused on short-term indicators of delinquency, Model 6 looks at long-term payment habits. The platform incorporates cash flows to build a good payment profile for applicants who would otherwise fail under conventional FICO rules.
“We would have customers who would miss a payment at an early point but would be good long-term,” said Schwartz. “Model 6 brings back more of those customers.”
“The cash-flow underwriting allows us to identify good, consistent borrowers even if they can’t achieve a perfect score,” said Schwartz. “It brings a lot of data into focus, and that allows a lot of other folks to have access to credit they otherwise would forego.”
Emergency Credit as a Safety Net
The survey revealed just how tenuous many OppFi customers’ situations still are. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they lacked adequate emergency savings. That, in Schwartz’s view, reinforces the value of having regulated, accessible credit options.
Lenders can respond by helping consumers access emergency credit options as a safety net.
“You don’t want to be signing over your car title just because your transmission went out,” he said. “We have unsecured loans that can bail you out at a time like this. While they may not always be the lowest rates for certain borrowers, they’re a far safer and more manageable option than risking your vehicle or dealing with overdraft fees.”
He stated that regulator guardrails matter, but so does access. Schwartz also mentioned many of these consumers will turn to OppFi as a backup plan, and these borrowers will switch more quickly, perhaps even, than prime borrowers, under financial duress.
“This group is very resilient,” he said. “They adjust faster to higher prices or shifts in incomes than you would expect. They’ve learned how to make do with less.”
Building Credit and Financial Literacy
OppFi also makes on-time payments to credit bureaus, giving debtors a channel through which they can build good trade lines. That can go a long way toward customers wanting to transition out of subprime into mainstream credit products.
In addition, OppFi has partnered with the gamified financial education platform Zogo. Customers, as well as non-customers, can enroll in credit education modules and redeem rewards like gift cards, giving them tools as well as rewards to educate themselves on how to handle money effectively.
“It’s not just a loan-raising proposal,” added Schwartz. “We’re about assisting folks toward better terms down the line. Education and establishing credit complement each other.”
Signs of Stability
Although the survey data represented consumer sentiment a few months ago, Schwartz said he has now begun to see stabilization after trade tensions have narrowed somewhat, inflation has returned within a healthy range, and stocks have reversed.
That stabilization can translate into steadier financials for subprime consumers within a year. “We’ll make progress next time we run the survey,” he said. “But even today, holding steady is a success. It shows our customers are sticking with us — because we’re discovering a way of how we can say yes when they call on us.”
