Cash-advance cost calculator
Advance apps quote a flat fee or a "tip," not a rate. That hides how expensive the money really is. Enter the fee and how early you're taking the money, and see the same cost as a yearly rate (APR).
Your advance, as a real rate
Illustrative model · actual rates and terms varyAPR = fee ÷ amount, scaled to a full year.
What a cash advance really costs
The first three rows are the federal regulator's own published examples. The rest apply the same formula to common pricing.
| The advance | Fee | Days | Effective APR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical employer-partnered advance | $3.18 | 10 | 109.5% |
| A small, fast advance of $50 | $3.18 | 4 | 580.4% |
| A direct-to-consumer advance of $144 | $8.00 | 7 | 290% |
| $100 with an instant-transfer fee only | $3.99 | 7 | 208% |
| $100 with an instant fee plus a $3 tip | $6.99 | 7 | 365% |
| $300 with an instant fee, waited a full pay period | $3.99 | 14 | 35% |
| $300 with a standard transfer and no tip | $0 | 14 | 0% |
What a year of advances costs
Based on the federal finding that workers take an average of 27 advances a year.
| How you use it | Per advance | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Standard transfer, tip set to zero | $0 | $0 |
| Instant transfer only | $3.18 | $86 |
| Instant transfer plus a $3 tip | $6.18 | $167 |
| Instant transfer plus a $5 tip | $8.99 | $243 |
| Subscription app at $8.99 a month | — | $108 |
One $3.18 fee isn't what hurts anyone. Twenty-seven of them in a year, while the shortfall that caused the first one is still there, is a different thing. Pulling Friday's money forward leaves Friday short.
The regulator found 82% of employer-partnered transactions carried a fee — though nearly all these services also offer a version that costs nothing. So the cheapest change isn't switching apps. It's waiting the two days and setting the tip to zero.
How this is calculated
We take the fee as a share of what you borrowed, then scale it to a full year. In plain terms: a fee that buys you the money for 8 days costs you that much roughly 45 times a year.
APR = (fee ÷ amount) × (365 ÷ days) × 100
The 36% line is what many regulators treat as the edge of affordable credit. Most advance fees land far above it.
One advance for a one-time gap is defensible. Doing it every payday is the treadmill — you pull next week's pay forward, so next week is short too.
Cheaper moves, in order: ask to delay or split the bill, switch to fee-free banking, or compare every option on the need-cash hub.