What Happens If You Don't Pay a Payday Loan - Consequences of Defaulting on a Payday Loan

What Happens If You Don't Pay a Payday Loan - Consequences of Defaulting on a Payday Loan By K D Garrow

Payday Loans are very short term loans intended to give you a quick cash injection in an emergency. They are literally a loan that you have to pay back on your next payday. For that reason, they are always for relatively small amounts of cash and for very short periods of time.

The cost of a payday loan is normally a fixed fee, which looks fairly reasonable on the face of it, but if you do not pay the loan back on time as agreed, additional charges can soon mount up and you can find yourself owing more in interest than you originally borrowed. Payday Loans are designed for very short term needs, and if there is any chance that may need the money for longer, you should consider alternative means of borrowing.

The charges may not be large amounts of money, but as a proportion of the amount being borrowed they are substantial. If you look at the charges in interest rate terms they are extremely high, often over 1,000%. In the US the charges are sometimes governed by local state laws, so cannot be above a certain amount.

Failure to pay back a payday loan on time can lead to hefty penalty charges, which for some people can mean getting into a cycle of increasing debt that is hard to break out of. What will typically happen is that if you take out a payday loan and then find that can't pay it off on the due date, you must inform the loan company in advance and arrange new repayment terms. This is known as refinancing or extending the loan and will lead to a new repayment plan which will include additional fees.

Different payday loan companies will have different arrangements and charges for extending loans, so it is worth checking all this out before you take out a loan. Some companies have truly extortionate fees, so you do need to be clear about what all the charges are before agreeing to a loan. If you do find that you are not going to be able to keep to the agreed repayment date, the main thing is to be sure to let the loan company know at least a full day before your loan due date, and preferably longer.

If you fail to notify the loan company in advance that you are not going to be able to meet the payment, your loan will be in default, which means the loan is immediately due for repayment and the consequences and penalty charges can be much more serious.

Payday loans can be useful in the right circumstances, but the key is not to use them to deal with serious debt, and not to use them regularly. They should be for unexpected emergencies only, and even then only if you are sure you can pay them off in full when you get paid.

If you do have serious debt problems, you will be better off trying to tackle the whole problem by negotiating new repayment arrangements with all of your creditors. Free advice is available online on how to do this.

Find recommendations for the best value direct payday loan lenders now. Read the author's step by step guide to getting rid of debt by negotiating with your creditors on his debt cures website. KD Garrow has worked as a senior manager with significant financial responsibility for the last twenty years. His website offers free, unbiased advice on a range of debt related issues, including debt consolidation, IVAs and debt management plans.