Your car needs a new alternator, the bill is $480, and payday is nine days out. You start typing "payday loan $500" into your phone because that number feels like the right size for the hole you're in. $500 does not cost the same amount in every state, and it might not even be available as a single-payment payday loan where you live. The fee, the legal term, and the resulting APR all depend on which state's line you're standing in.

This article puts six states side by side (Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, and California) so you can see the actual dollar cost of a $500 loan before you sign anything. For how the loan itself works from application to repayment, see our guide to how payday loans work. This piece also covers what happens if you can't repay on the due date, and what changes if you only need $200 instead.

Which States Even Let You Borrow $500

Florida sets its maximum single-payment payday loan at exactly $500, so a Florida borrower asking for $500 is hitting the ceiling, not landing in the middle of the range. Ohio allows loans up to $1,000, but only as a longer installment product, not the two-week loan most people picture. Texas has no state-set maximum at all: lenders operating as Credit Access Businesses can arrange loans of any size the borrower and broker agree to.

Illinois technically permits payday loans, but a 36% all-in rate cap has made the traditional $500, two-week product commercially impossible to offer. Mississippi allows a $500 face-amount check, though the cash you actually walk away with is less than $500. California is the outlier: its payday loan cap tops out at $300, so a reader searching "payday loan $500" in California cannot get one as a single-payment loan under state law at all. You'll find the $300 math below, along with what a $500 need actually routes to in that state.

The Fee and APR Math on a $500 Loan, State by State

Our guide to how payday loan APR is calculated walks through why a "$15 per $100" fee turns into a 391% APR under the standard formula (fee divided by the amount borrowed, multiplied by 365, divided by the loan term in days), so we won't re-derive it here. What follows is that formula applied to six real state fee structures, using $500 as the amount borrowed.

Florida: $55 total, about 287% APR

Florida caps the fee at 10% of the amount advanced, which is $50 on a $500 loan, plus a verification fee of up to $5 under Florida Statute 560.309(8). Total cost: about $55. Florida's legal term runs 7 to 31 days.

At a standard 14-day term that $55 fee works out to roughly 287% APR, under Florida Statute 560.404(5).

This site's own dedicated Florida law article cites 304% APR on a $500 loan. That figure matches the $50 base fee alone, without the $5 verification fee, over about a 12-day term. The 287% figure here includes the verification fee and uses a standardized 14-day term across all six states for a fair comparison. Florida's actual legal term can run anywhere from 7 to 31 days, so the real APR on any given loan moves with however many days the lender sets.

Texas: no fee cap, roughly $70 to $95

Texas has a 10% constitutional usury cap on interest, but licensed payday lenders sidestep it entirely by operating as Credit Access Businesses. These are brokers who arrange a loan from a separate, unaffiliated lender and charge their own fee for doing so, and no statute caps that CAB fee, under Texas Finance Code § 393.201. Our dedicated Texas payday loan laws article covers the full CAB fee loophole.

Because there's no published fee table, we can't hand you a single dollar figure the way we can for Florida. What we can do is work backward from real data: the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner (OCCC)'s 2025 study found CAB payday loan APRs running 365% to 496%. Applying that band to a $500, 14-day loan produces a fee of roughly $70 to $95, a derived range, not a lender's published rate card, since no statute caps the CAB fee itself.

Ohio: there's no two-week $500 loan anymore

Ohio's 2018 Fairness in Lending Act rebuilt payday lending into something closer to a small installment loan. The rules: a 28% annual interest cap, a monthly maintenance fee of whichever is lower between 10% of the loan or $30, a 2% origination fee on loans of $500 or more, a minimum term of 91 days, and a maximum term of one year. See the site's dedicated Ohio payday loan laws article for the full history; the statute itself is Ohio Revised Code §§ 1321.39 through 1321.40.

Run the math at that 91-day minimum term. Interest comes to about $35 (500 x 0.28 x 91/365). The maintenance fee, at $30 a month for roughly three months, adds about $90. Origination adds $10 (2% of $500).

Total: about $135 over 91 days, which works out to roughly 108% APR. That APR is lower than every state here except Illinois, though the dollar cost is higher because the term is longer. It's exactly what the law was built to do: there is simply no legal version of a two-week, single-payment $500 payday loan in Ohio anymore.

Illinois: the product doesn't really exist

Illinois's Predatory Loan Prevention Act, effective March 2021, caps the all-in APR on nearly all consumer loans, payday loans included, at 36%, calculated the same way the federal Military APR is calculated. Any loan written above that cap is void: the lender loses the right to collect principal, interest, and fees, under 815 ILCS 123. Our dedicated Illinois payday loan laws article covers the cap's full legislative history.

Run a $500, 14-day loan through that cap and the maximum legal cost is about $6.90. No licensed storefront lender offers a standalone product at that price point, because $6.90 doesn't cover the overhead of writing the loan. The result: Illinois went from 518 licensed payday storefronts in 2011 to zero today, a decline verified through the Woodstock Institute and NPR Illinois reporting on the law's effect. If you live in Illinois, that's your answer: the traditional product doesn't exist anymore, and borrowers land in longer installment loans instead.

Mississippi: the $500 loan that isn't really $500

When a lender in Mississippi writes you a "$500 payday loan," you sign a $500 check, but the cash you actually receive is $410. The other $90 is the fee, deducted up front rather than added on top the way Florida or Texas structure theirs. That's a meaningfully different arrangement than the other states in this comparison, where the $500 figure is the cash in your hand.

The fee structure comes from Mississippi's Check Cashers Act, which uses a tiered rate: roughly $20 per $100 on the lower band of a loan and $21.95 per $100 on the band running from $251 to $500. We're using the Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance's own published worked example, the $500 check netting $410 cash for a $90 fee, since it comes directly from the regulator. See the site's Mississippi payday loan laws article for the statute detail.

At Mississippi's actual term of about 30 days, that $90 fee against the $410 you actually received works out to roughly 267% APR. If you recompute that same fee against a hypothetical 14-day term, purely so it lines up with the other states in this comparison, it works out to roughly 572% APR. Both figures are calculated against the $410 you actually walk away with, not the $500 you signed for, and that's the number that should guide your decision.

California: $500 isn't on the menu

California's deferred deposit transaction law caps the face amount at $300, with a 15% fee cap and a separate $15 cap on returned-check fees, under California Financial Code § 23035. Our dedicated California payday loan rate cap article covers what AB 539 changed and what it didn't.

A $300 loan costs $45 in fees (15% of $300), and like Mississippi's structure, that fee comes out of the check rather than getting added on top: you sign a $300 check, but the cash you actually receive is $255. The APR has to be calculated against that $255 you actually get, not the $300 face amount. At California's 31-day legal term, that's about 208% APR (45/255 x 365/31 x 100); recomputed against a hypothetical 14-day term for comparison purposes, it's about 460%. If you need $500 in California, a single payday loan can't get you there under state law.

Your options are two separate $300-maximum loans (California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation restricts how lenders handle multiple concurrent loans, so check with the DFPI before assuming you can stack two), or a different product entirely, like an installment loan or a credit union PAL loan. Our guide to payday loan alternatives covers those workaround options in more depth.

The $500 comparison, side by side

  • Florida: max loan $500, fee ~$55, 7 to 31-day term, ~287% APR at 14 days.
  • Texas: no state maximum, fee ~$70 to $95 (derived), typically a 14-day term, 365% to 496% APR.
  • Ohio: max loan $1,000, fee ~$135, 91-day legal minimum term, ~108% APR.
  • Illinois: capped at 36% all-in APR, fee ~$6.90 maximum legal cost at 14 days; the traditional product doesn't exist above that cost.
  • Mississippi: $500 check nets $410 cash, $90 fee, ~30-day actual term, 267% actual APR (572% at a hypothetical 14-day term).
  • California: capped at $300, not $500; $300 check nets $255 cash, $45 fee, up to a 31-day term, 208% APR at 31 days (460% at a hypothetical 14-day term).

If You Can't Repay on the Due Date: Rollover and Renewal Costs by State

What happens next depends heavily on where you live, and the two ends of the spectrum are Florida and Illinois.

Florida bans rollovers outright under Florida Statute 560.404(18) and (19). A lender cannot extend or renew your existing agreement; you have to pay it off in full, then wait 24 hours before taking out a new one. Illinois, meanwhile, has regulated the product so far below profitability that rollover mechanics are close to a moot point: there's little traditional payday product left to roll over.

Texas sits at the riskier end. No statute caps the CAB fee itself, so each renewal can bring a fresh fee on top of what you already owe. Ohio's structure doesn't really have a rollover concept in the traditional sense, since the product is built as a longer installment loan rather than a lump-sum due in two weeks.

For Mississippi and California, we're not going to hand you a specific rollover or renewal rule, because the exact mechanics for both states need direct confirmation against current regulator guidance before we'd put a number on them. If you're in either state and you're worried about missing a due date, call your state's banking regulator (Mississippi's Department of Banking and Consumer Finance, or California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation) before you assume you know the rule.

In any state that allows renewals, the math works the same way: you pay the fee again, and the amount you originally borrowed doesn't shrink by a dollar. If you're already staring down a due date you can't hit, the site's step-by-step guide walks through how to get out of a rollover cycle.

Borrowing $200 Instead

If $500 is more than you need, a smaller loan changes the dollar cost but usually not the APR, since most fee structures scale with the principal. Here's the $200 version in the four states where the underlying rate math is solid enough to recompute cleanly.

Florida's math doesn't scale down cleanly, because the $5 verification fee is flat no matter the loan size, so it weighs more heavily on a smaller loan. 10% of $200 is $20, plus up to $5 in verification, for about $25 total. At 14 days, that's roughly 326% APR, higher than the $500 loan's 287% for exactly that reason.

Texas doesn't have a published $200 fee any more than it has one for $500, so applying the same OCCC-documented 365% to 496% APR band to a $200, 14-day loan produces a derived fee of roughly $28 to $38.

Illinois stays true to form: the 36% all-in cap applied to $200 over 14 days limits the maximum legal cost to about $2.76. The traditional storefront product isn't economically viable at this price point.

California is the one state where borrowing less doesn't force a product change, since $200 stays under the $300 cap. The fee is 15% of $200, or $30, and a $200 check nets $170 cash the same way the $300 loan nets $255. At a 14-day term that's about 460% APR; at California's full 31-day term it drops to about 208%, the same rate as the $300 loan, since the 15% cap is flat regardless of amount borrowed within the limit.

We're not publishing $200 figures for Ohio or Mississippi here. Ohio's origination fee structure is written for loans of $500 and up, and how it applies below that threshold isn't something we can confirm without checking directly against the statute's fine print. Mississippi's tiered fee schedule uses different rates below the $251 mark than it does at $500, and the regulator's own worked example only covers the $500 figure, so we're not going to guess at what the lower tier produces.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a $500 payday loan legal in every state?

No. California caps its payday loan product at $300, so $500 isn't available as a single-payment loan there. Illinois's 36% all-in rate cap makes the traditional product commercially impossible to offer, so it doesn't exist in practice either. Ohio only offers $500 as a 91-day-plus installment product, not a two-week loan.

How much does a $200 payday loan cost?

It depends on the state. A $200 loan runs about $25 in fees in Florida and $30 in California. In Illinois, $2.76 is the legal ceiling under the 36% rate cap, not a real offer, since that fee doesn't cover the cost of writing a loan.

What happens if I can't pay back a $500 payday loan?

Your state's rollover rules decide what comes next. Florida bans rollovers and requires a 24-hour wait before a new loan. Texas allows renewals, and since no statute caps the CAB fee, each renewal can bring a fresh fee. If you're at risk of missing a due date, contact the lender and ask about a payment plan.

Why is Mississippi's $500 loan actually $410 in cash?

Mississippi lenders deduct the fee up front rather than adding it on top. You sign a $500 check, but the lender advances $410 in cash and keeps $90 as the fee. The APR is calculated against that $410 net amount, not the full $500 face value of the check.

Why does Texas not have a published fee for a $500 payday loan?

Texas payday lenders operate as Credit Access Businesses, a broker structure that isn't subject to a state fee cap. With no published rate table to pull from, the dollar figures for Texas here are calculated backward from the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner (OCCC)'s own documented APR range, not a lender's posted rate.