Why they capture people
Can't repay $575 on payday? Pay $75 to extend, still owing $500, and again. CFPB research found most payday loans go to borrowers stuck in sequences of 10+.
'$15 per $100' sounds like 15%. For two weeks, it's ~391% annualized. Loans are priced in APR for exactly this reason.
Typically ~25% per MONTH (≈300% APR), secured by the vehicle you need for work. Repossession compounds every other problem.
A payday loan doesn't solve this month's emergency. It schedules the same emergency for every month after.
What beats them (nearly everything)
Selling, gigs, plasma, earned-wage access, day labor: all cost less than 400%.
Federal credit unions offer small 'payday alternative loans' with capped rates (NCUA program). Joining a credit union is often same-day.
Utility payment plans, landlord partial-payment agreements and creditor hardship programs all beat borrowing at triple digits.
211, food banks and emergency funds exist so this loan never happens. That's literally their job.
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I'm already inside a payday loan cycle. What's the exit?
Break the rollover, not the loan. Options in rough order: ask the lender for an extended payment plan (several states force them to offer one; it is free and stops the fee clock); join a credit union today and ask about a payday-alternative loan (PAL) to retire the balance at a capped rate; run the Money Now page hard for two weeks (selling, gigs, plasma) and aim every dollar at principal; and check state law, because regulators have shut down illegal terms before, and your state AG's site says what's enforceable. Each rollover you skip is the win; the sequence starves from the outside.
What separates earned-wage access from a payday loan?
Employer-offered earned-wage programs (ask payroll) advance wages you've ALREADY worked, typically for free or trivial fees. Reasonable plumbing. The gray zone is direct-to-consumer advance apps: 'tips' and express fees can annualize into double or triple digits, and daily reborrowing recreates the payday cycle with better branding. The test is always the same arithmetic: total fees ÷ amount ÷ days × 365. Under ~36% and transparent, it's credit; into the hundreds, it's a payday loan wearing an app icon.
Источники: CFPB: What is a payday loan? · FTC: Payday lending · NCUA: Payday alternative loans