Payday lending in the US is not one market but three, and the regime you live in decides what you can borrow, at what price, and through which doors. The boundaries are statutory, not marketing: here is the map.
Regime 1: Permissive States With Statutory Caps
About half the country licenses the product with a written ceiling: a maximum advance (commonly $300 to $1,000), a fee regime (commonly 10% to 17.65% of the amount, or $15 to $30 per $100), a maximum term, and rules on rollovers and cancellation. Inside this regime, the price of a given advance is nearly identical across lenders, because the state sets the number; what varies is service and speed.
This is the regime this site covers state by state: every state page lists its ceiling, fee, statute, regulator, and a worked cost example.
Regime 2: The 36%-ish APR Capped States
A second group, roughly a dozen states plus DC, caps rates near 36% APR plus limited fees. The arithmetic kills classic payday pricing: a two-week advance at those caps returns single dollars of fee revenue, which cannot fund underwriting or default losses. So licensed short-term credit there looks like small installment products, and the “payday” shelf is effectively empty even where the product is not banned by name.
Borrowers in these states usually do best at the cheaper rungs of the alternatives ladder: PALs and app advances fit the capped regime comfortably.
Regime 3: Prohibitive States
Thirteen jurisdictions, a band from the Northeast (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts and neighbors) across parts of the Midwest and mountain West, prohibit high-cost short-term lending entirely, enforcing decades-old small-loan or criminal usury statutes. No licensed product exists; unlicensed online operators that advertise there are breaking that state’s law, and their offers are where scam risk concentrates.
The disclosed channel that does reach these states is tribal: lenders chartered by federally recognized tribes operating under federal law. It is legal and expensive (400% to 800% APR), and it demands the vetting routine in what is a tribal loan.
The Special Case: Broker States
One large state (Texas) runs the CSO model: Credit Access Businesses broker third-party loans and charge separate fees, leaving the loan amount technically uncapped. The disclosure burden is real, and so is the price: total costs can exceed standard payday fees. The regulator publishes the licensed-CAB list; verifying a broker before signing takes one lookup.
How to Read Your Own State in 60 Seconds
- Find it on our rates and fees table: the row shows the ceiling, the fee regime, the statute and the regulator.
- If the row exists, you are in regime 1 or 2, and the worked example shows what an advance costs there.
- If your state is absent, you are in regime 3: the legal routes are the alternatives ladder and, if unavoidable, vetted tribal credit.
Regime determines price. Whoever offers you a number outside your state’s regime is either borrowing from a different rulebook (tribal) or breaking the one you live under, and the difference is worth checking every time.