Digital Library: Successful Challenges to Earned Wage Payday Loans

November 12, 2025 — Article

Earned wage payday loans, also known as payday loan apps, earned wage access products, earned wage advances, or fintech payday loans, are a fast-growing payday lending scheme. Typically claiming not to be loans and to charge no interest, these schemes are set up to evade federal and state consumer lending laws. 

This article explains why earned wage payday loans are in fact loans covered by federal and state lending laws except in states that have specifically exempted them.  Attempts to evade those laws may subject earned wage payday lenders to significant private consumer remedies under the Truth in Lending Act, the Military Lending Act, state credit laws, and state laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts and practices (UDAPs). Of special note are six federal court decisions issued just this year finding earned wage payday loans to be covered by credit laws. 

Moreover, as explained in the article, even if earned wage payday loans were not covered by credit laws, they still may result in numerous UDAP violations.  The article also describes earned wage payday loans, the marketing of these products, and the resulting significant consumer harm.