Payday Loans and Your Credit Report

While a credit check is often not required when applying for and receiving a payday loan, there are some companies that do use this option. There is also the potential of harming your credit if you are not responsible with repayment. We cannot stress enough the importance of repaying your payday loan on time. Those who are not fiscally responsible tend to fall into a vicious cycle that could harm their credit scores. Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re applying for $500 from a payday loan provider. You give them a check to guarantee the money at maturity. They give you the $500 (minus set fee/interest) and you’re off to take care of that emergency. But what happens if you do not have sufficient funds to cover your check at the time of maturity? You could suffer overdraft fees from your bank and possibly multiple overdraft fees as the company will continue to run the check through again and again until it cashes. Of course, you can go back to the lender and pay the fee again to extend the loan, but you are then compounding the problem. That lender, as well as the bank, can report your financial activities to credit bureaus, harming your record and score.