They are short-term loans, and the average payday loan payment is about 20% of your disposable income. That means if you're poor, what you are going to pay off is basically a portion of your income, or an amount of money you do not spend on other necessities. So it's not like it's an easy way to cover your monthly debts in an emergency, but what you are putting in with these loans is basically that part of your monthly income.

So you're buying, in the short term, this item that you are not going to use that much, but it's something to get ready for after you come across a period of time when your income is low, and because it's a short term loan, you have more time to pay it off. So it may take a few months, it may take a few years to pay that back. And the worst thing is that, if you're in that situation, they will take on more money than you originally borrowed for something that will never repay. When you have a payday loan, you know what you're really paying out of pocket? In some cases, payday lenders use high interest rates to push borrowers into debt.

A 2015 report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that many payday lenders charge higher interest rates and late fees to borrowers, and they rely on the loans to pay for other costs like credit card bill credits and rent and utility payments.
