Payday advance laws were put in place to help consumers not fall under a trap with payday advance type loans. Payday advances at one time could charge almost any finance charge they wanted to their payday advance loans. Some states have stepped in to cap the amounts that payday advance loans where able to charge for their loans. Some states even stepped in and ordered that installment payments enforced to help people that found their selves struggling to pay off a payday advance loan.

To date there is currently only 23 states plus The District of Columbia that have created state laws to legalize and regulate payday advances. These states also have laws enforce that a cash advance company be licensed and registered with in the state they are doing business in. In some states the laws have gone so far to require that the cash advance company be bonded or maintain a certain minimum of net worth. Some of these state even placed restrictions on the maximum fees, terms, and loan amounts, and interest fees on these cash advances. On top of that these states have even went so far to protect the consumers by prohibiting payday advance companies from filing criminal charges for people who are having a hard time paying their payday advance.

To date these states are (listed in alphabetical order) Arkansas, California, Colorado, The District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

These laws the states have put in force help protect consumers from being sued by payday advance companies. They also protect consumers from being taken advantage of in a time of need or under emergency situations where a consumer may find they need money quickly to cover an unexpected expense.

When and if you ever have to obtain a payday advance read over all the terms and make sure those terms fall with in your state laws. If you do not understand the terms of the loan its best to ask for them to clarify the terms to you or have an outside party look over the terms and explain them to you. There is small print in most terms for most companies and it is the responsibility of the consumer to read and understand all of the terms set forth in the agreement.

There has been some bad press following around some payday advance companies using scare tactics, unethical tactics and sometimes illegal means to obtain the money owed on a payday advance before you work with any company do your homework and research the company and ask around to friends and families if they have ever dealt with a payday advance company and get there advice and take on the situation. Be armed with knowledge and understand exactly what will be expected of you when taking a payday advance loan out. May borrows sign their contracts with out reading them because of the need of money is greater then the need to protect their rights keeping that in mind when you sign a contract the terms stipulated in the contracts are more favorable to the payday advance company then you the consumer.