Payday loan apps offer small, short-term loans that are typically repaid on the consumers’ next payday. These products are sometimes called Earned Wage Advance, Early Wage Access, or EWA but few merit this name. Research by CRL and others has demonstrated using these apps leave many consumers worse off - paying high fees for small loans, increasing their risk of overdraft, and having to reborrow paycheck after paycheck. Regulators should enforce credit laws to increase transparency and to protect consumers' paychecks from being eroded by fees and tips.
CRL Resources
Featured Resources
- The Cost of Payday Loan Apps in Your State
- Payday Loan App Litigation Tracker
- Payday Loan Apps: A Very Expensive Form of Credit
- We Concur: Courts Unanimously Say Payday Loan Apps Subject to the Military Lending Act
- EarnIn Study Shows the Harms of Payday Loan Apps (“EWA”)
- Nickel and Dimed: How Payday Loan Apps Drain Workers’ Pay and How to Stop Them
- State-by-State Action on Payday Loan Apps
- Escalating Debt: The Real Impact of Payday Loan Apps Sold as Earned Wage Advances (EWA)
- A Loan Shark in Your Pocket: The Perils of Earned Wage Advance
- Paying to be Paid: Consumer Protections Needed for Earned Wage Advances and Other Fintech Cash Advances (Updated: October 2024)
- One-page Primer - Payday Loan Apps: States Should Regulate As Credit, Protect Consumers (Updated: September 2025)
- Not Free: The Large Hidden Costs of Small-Dollar Loans Made Through Cash Advance Apps
- State Policy Recommendations for Earned Wage Advances and Other Fintech Cash Advances
- Survey Summary of Earned Wage Advance and Cash Advance Apps
- Advocates: CFPB Should Stop Paycheck Advance Apps From Hiding Junk Fees and Other Costs From Consumers
- Video: Earned Wage Access is Credit (In Focus Series #3)
Additional Resources
- Data Spotlight: Developments in the Paycheck Advance Market, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Financial Technology: Products Have Benefits and Risks to Underserved Consumers, and Regulatory Clarity Is Needed, U.S. Government Accountability Office
- 2021 Earned Wage Access Data Findings, California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
Payday Loan Apps in the News
- The Hidden Costs of Cash Advance Apps, Nerd Wallet's Smart Money Podcast
- Pay Advance Apps May Be Costlier Than Workers Think, The New York Times
- The Loan Sharks in Your Pocket, Rochester Beacon (op-ed)
- Video: I Needed My Paycheck Early. Then I Got Cheated by These Apps., More Perfect Union
- Podcast: Earned Wage Access: Innovation or Payday [Loans] 2.0, The FinReg Pod
- These apps allow workers to get paid between paychecks. Experts say there are steep costs, Associated Press