Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help, go to moneyhelper.org.uk.
Please note: High-cost short-term credit is unsuitable for sustained borrowing over long periods and would be expensive as a means of longer-term borrowing.
Payday loans are designed for borrowing money in the short term. They typically come with high interest rates and should be used with caution. Read our guide to find out more about how payday loans work and what you should know if you are considering applying for one.
Payday loans are high-interest loans over relatively short periods of up to a month. As the name suggests, they are designed to tide you over until you receive your pay cheque.
Payday loans, along with other short term, unsecured personal loans where the APR (annual percentage rate) is 100% or higher are defined as “high-cost short-term credit” by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You generally won’t see high street banks providing these – a number of predominantly online companies like the now-defunct Wonga and QuickQuid found success in the early 2000s offering payday loans over the internet.
Payday loans are a very expensive method of borrowing and should only be considered as a last resort. They may not solve your money problems, and they’re not a good idea for borrowing over longer periods or for sustained borrowing.
Before you apply for one, make sure you’ve considered other options, such as a credit card or a personal loan. Is the expenditure absolutely essential? If you can defer a purchase, then you could save yourself money in the long run. If you’re struggling to pay a bill, talk to your electricity, gas, phone or water provider to see if you can work out a payment plan. Read more about alternatives to payday loans at MoneyHelper.
Like most lenders, payday or short term loan providers charge interest on the money they lend to you. Interest is a fee for borrowing and is normally a percentage of the amount you borrow – so if you borrow more money, you pay more interest. If you decide to take out a payday loan, you can expect to pay up to 0.8% interest each day – that’s £4 for every £500 borrowed, every day.
For loans of 1 month or less, you’ll generally repay the money borrowed (plus interest) in 1 payment, but for loans of more than 1 month, you’ll generally pay 1 “instalment” each month. In the majority of cases, with each instalment you pay off part of the capital (the amount you have borrowed) as well as the interest you have accrued so far. This means that your first instalment would mostly go towards paying interest, while your last instalment would mostly go towards clearing the capital.
Some lenders, however, provide short term loans on an “interest-only” basis. That means that each month, you pay only the interest that your capital has accrued, and then in the last instalment, you’ll pay the interest and clear the capital. This might seem like a good idea, because all but the final instalment will be smaller than if you were steadily chipping away at the capital. However, you’ll pay more interest overall with an interest-only loan (compared to an interest and capital repayment loan at the same rate).
Although the majority of lenders do not charge a fee to apply for these loans, heavy fees can be incurred if you don’t make payments on time. Late payments are also likely to damage your credit rating and, therefore, your ability to borrow money in the future. Only consider a payday or short term loan if you’re certain you can meet the repayment schedule.
When you’re in urgent need of money, even a bad deal can look good. Be sure to compare lenders to get a loan with the best rates that fits your needs. Here are some things to consider:
When considering any loan, it’s a good idea to work out the total amount you’ll need to repay. Lenders should be upfront about this figure, and in many cases, it’s a more useful figure than the interest rate. A lower rate might not benefit you if the loan term is longer than you need. If there are no penalties for repaying the loan early and you think you can, then a better rate could outweigh a shorter term.
There are still dozens of short term lenders across the country. However, while many are trustworthy and follow all the rules and regulations, others are predatory and use payday loans as a way to take advantage of borrowers.
By reading reviews and comparing lenders, you’ll help make sure you find the short term loan that’s best for you and save yourself a lot of time and money.
A good review covers the benefits and drawbacks of the lender without too much bias. If the review is too positive or negative, watch out. It could be someone paid to leave a good review or someone with bad budgeting skills leaving a bad one. The more moderate a review is, the more trustworthy it may be.
If you think there might be a chance the lending company you’re looking at is a scam, then avoid them at all costs.
A good short term loan review gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision and should cover these aspects:
The following should help you find legit short term loans easily:
The majority of lenders will insist on debiting your account on the day you get paid, using a “Continuous Payment Authority” (CPA). However, some lenders accept payments by other means, such as direct debit or a manual transfer.
A CPA is a payment arrangement in which you give a company permission to withdraw money from your account on a recurring basis. CPAs differ from direct debits because they give the company being paid the ability to withdraw money from your account whenever they wish and take payments of different amounts without consulting you.
Most payday loan companies use CPAs to collect your repayments. However, you can cancel this at any time by consulting with either your lender or your bank. If you do cancel a CPA, make sure you arrange to make repayments by another means. If you miss a repayment, it will affect your credit score and potentially cost you extra in fees and additional interest.
You may wish to consider using a payday loan broker. Brokers will usually have a panel of lenders that they refer applicants to, so if you’re not successful with one, your application is passed to the next, then the next, and so on. You’ll only have to complete a single application form with the broker rather than going through the process several times with different lenders.
The annual percentage rate (APR) is a measure designed to help consumers compare loans from different providers.
All payday or short term loan providers must calculate the APR of their products and services using the same calculation. It’s calculated based on a 1 year term (even if the loan is only for 1 month), which can make already-high rates seem even higher. It also takes into consideration both the interest and charges.
While APR is certainly useful to compare short term loans and makes it clear how they are much more expensive than other kinds of loans, it doesn’t really tell the whole story. It’s important to consider other factors besides the representative APR, namely the total amount repayable.
How much your loan costs depends on how much you borrow, the interest rate charged and the term of the loan. Payday loans are, by design, an expensive form of credit and are usually geared towards people who have trouble finding credit from more mainstream sources, such as banks and credit unions. It’s always important to be clear about the fees and charges involved when taking out a short term loan.
Though payday loans can be used for a wide range of purposes, they’re generally designed to cover unexpected expenses. Common uses for payday loans include forgotten bills, car repairs, emergency medical expenses or any other sudden event. Payday loans are unlikely to help when it comes to ongoing financial issues, however.
Here are some common scenarios:
You need… | Could a payday loan help? |
|---|---|
| To fix a fault on your car, costing around £400 |
|
| To fix your laptop, costing around £100 |
|
| To replace a broken heating element, costing around £100 |
|
| To buy a £5,000 secondhand car |
|
| To pay for a family vacation, costing £5,000 |
|
| £100 for a night out |
|
| £50 each month to top-up your income and tide you over |
|
| To spread the cost of a new £600 sofa over 10 months |
|
The rise of payday loans brought about a number of unscrupulous lenders that were exploiting borrowers with extortionate interest rates, fees and penalties. In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took over regulation of this area and brought in new rules to rein in outrageous lending practices.
Browse our collection of payday loan guides, designed to answer all of your short term loan questions and help you find the right payday loan.
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