October 2, 2018
As of September 1, 2018, the laws in BC relating to payday loans were changed to better protect borrowers. We've updated our payday loan pages to reflect the changes.
A key change relates to the cost of taking out a payday loan. Payday lenders can’t charge more than $15 for every $100 borrowed, including all charges and fees. The maximum used to be $17 for every $100 borrowed. While this change does lower the cost of a payday loan, they are still a very expensive way to borrow money. For a 14-day loan, the $15 charge on $100 borrowed translates into an annual interest rate of 391%!
Another significant change relates to the cooling-off period. It has been increased to two days from one day. That means a borrower has two business days to cancel a payday loan — for any reason. They must not be charged extra for cancelling.
See our complete coverage of payday loans:
Why you should avoid payday loans: Not only are they a very expensive way to borrow money, there are other risks.
Getting a payday loan: If you have no other option, learn how to prevent problems when getting a payday loan.
Cancelling a payday loan: You can back out of a payday loan (for any reason) within the cooling-off period, and you can sometimes cancel after this period.