It’s easy enough to get approved for a payday loan. Most lenders don’t even do credit checks. In fact, at many places, you just need to present a pay stub, a post-dated check and some references to get a payday loan. Most payday loan shops only check to see that you have not defaulted on previous payday loans. That makes taking out a payday loan sound like a good idea, right? Maybe. Actually, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble with payday loans if you aren’t careful. Here’s why: Many people end up paying hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars in fees when they take out payday loans. So, want to know how to cut down on payday loan fees? Here’s how you can do it.

Know what the interest rates are.
The interest rate on most payday loans can be in the range of 300 to 425%. That means, you could end up paying a hefty sum of extra money if you aren’t careful. But the thing is most people either don’t understand or don’t care about payday loan interest rates. However, if you as an educated consumer know what the interest will be on the payday loan your thinking about applying for, you’re taking the first step to avoiding unnecessary payday loan fees.

Know what you can afford.
After you’ve gotten a good hand on the interest of your payday loan, it’s time to ask yourself just one good question: Can you afford it? The high interest of payday loans often adds up to an extra $15.00 for every hundred dollars borrowed. That’s a lot of extra cash. Then, consider if you will be able to pay the loan back on time. Some people think they can easily put up with a small late fee. However, the late fee on a payday loan may be anything but small. And when you put a large late fee together with a high interest rate, you may be looking at a big problem in terms of fees. So again, the big question is, can you afford all that?

Here’s what might happen if you can’t afford it. You may end up extending the term of your payday loan. Some call this “rolling over” a payday loan. That means you have to pay more interest and more fees. This is how most people get stuck in a payday loan cycle of debt. What seemed like a good idea at first begins to become a vehicle that puts them in a worse off position than when they started.

Know your weaknesses.
Here’s a very y good question to ask yourself when it comes to paying people back: Do you actually pay people back? And if you do, do you do it on time? If you don’t or if you try but still don’t, you may want to reconsider taking out a payday loan. Sure, you may be saying that this time, you just know you’ll pay the payday loan lender back. But the truth is, bad habits are hard to break. And if the last twenty loans you’ve borrowed haven’t been paid back on time, you don’t have too good of a chance of changing your ways this one time. And if you want to see if you can change, then that’s fine. But you may not want to test yourself out on something as costly as a payday loan.