Payday Loan & Cash Advance APR Calculator
Turn a flat fee into the real APR and total cost, so you can see what a cash advance truly costs.
The True Cost
A flat fee looks small until you annualize it. This is what it really comes to.
Why a Small Fee Can Be a Big APR
Here's the formula this tool uses: fee divided by the amount borrowed, multiplied by 365 divided by the term in days, times 100. That converts a one-time flat fee into an annual percentage rate, so you can line it up against any other loan.
Take a common example. A $15 fee to borrow $100 for two weeks sounds cheap. Annualized, it works out to roughly 391% APR. That's the math the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau points to when it warns about the cost of payday borrowing. The fee itself is small; the term is what makes the APR jump.
The shorter the loan, the higher the annualized rate for the same fee. That doesn't automatically make every cash advance a bad call, but it does mean you should know the real number before you borrow, and look hard at whether a longer-term personal loan would cost you less.
The content and tools on this site are for general educational purposes only and are not financial, legal, or tax advice. Estimates from our calculators are illustrations, not offers. Results are estimates only and are not an offer of credit.
