Payday loan app companies try to evade state credit laws by promoting a legal fiction: they claim that these loans are not loans. As state regulators and attorneys general investigate and challenge industry violations of credit law, these lenders have lobbied state legislatures for exemptions from those laws. This state law chart serves as a shorthand guide to state regulation of payday loan apps in the states that have authorized them. It provides a side-by-side comparison of where states have imposed meaningful consumer protections. This chart is therefore a practical advocacy tool — equipping decision-makers with a clear, visual snapshot of where strong protections exist, where harmful carve-outs have been enacted, and where urgent action is still needed.
This chart is part of a policy brief, Nickel and Dimed: How Payday Loan Apps Drain Workers’ Pay and How to Stop Them.