Before any online lender gets your routing number, you can know whether it answers to a regulator. That is the license lookup: a public database, free, no account required, about 60 seconds per lender. In a six-jurisdiction region where the caps range from 6% in Pennsylvania to no fee cap at all in Delaware, it is the highest-value minute in the entire process. This guide lists every lookup, explains what a miss really means, and gives one routine that works in all six states and on the sovereign track besides.
The Six Lookups
| Jurisdiction | Regulator | Lookup at |
|---|---|---|
| Maryland | Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation | labor.maryland.gov/finance |
| Pennsylvania | Department of Banking and Securities | www.dobs.pa.gov |
| Washington, DC | Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking | disb.dc.gov |
| Virginia | SCC Bureau of Financial Institutions | scc.virginia.gov/pages/Financial-Institutions |
| Delaware | Office of the State Bank Commissioner | banking.delaware.gov |
| Illinois | Department of Financial and Professional Regulation | idfpr.illinois.gov |
What each one polices, in one line each. Maryland holds licensed small-loan interest to 33% APR, so no payday product is licensed there. Pennsylvania’s Consumer Discount Company Act, 7 P.S. § 6201, caps at 6%, which keeps a storefront payday market out of the state. DC’s caps, § 28-3301 and § 26-301, sit at 24%. Virginia licenses installment loans up to $2,500 over terms of 120 to 730 days at 36% APR plus up to a $25 monthly maintenance fee under the Fairness in Lending Act, Va. Code § 6.2-1800. Delaware licenses payday products up to $1,000 for up to 60 days with no fee cap under Del. Code tit. 5 § 2227, which is why market APRs there run about 391% to 520%. Illinois applies a 36% all-in rate cap under the Predatory Loan Prevention Act, 815 ILCS 123/, in force since March 2021, with rollovers forbidden.
Why the Same Lender Sits in Different Columns
Licenses attach state by state, so one national lender can appear in Delaware’s database and be rightly absent from Maryland’s and Illinois’. A $1,000, 60-day product that is legal in Delaware could not be licensed in a 33% or 36% cap state at any price. The lesson cuts both ways: absence where no license could exist is expected, and presence in a permissive state does not make an offer legal where you live. Search your own state first, because that is the statute your contract would actually sit under.
What a Lookup Proves, and What It Does Not
A hit proves the entity holds a state license in that state, which means a regulator to complain to and a statute standing behind the contract. A miss proves nothing by itself, and this is where borrowers most often jump the wrong way. Tribal lenders will not appear in any state lookup, by design: they are not state-licensed, they are chartered by tribes. Their verification runs on a separate track: the tribe and charter named in writing, OLA or NAFSA membership, and the CFPB complaint database. A lender claiming a Maryland license that the lookup cannot find is a different story entirely. That claim is false, and the offer ends there.
The Five-Step Routine
- Get the exact legal entity name from the website footer or the application terms, not the brand name on the logo.
- Search the regulator where you live first, since that is the statute your contract would sit under.
- Search any other state the lender claims licensure in, using the same entity name.
- For a tribal claim, switch tracks: name the tribe, find the charter, check OLA or NAFSA membership, and search the CFPB complaint database.
- Match the verified name against the name printed on the final contract. A mismatch stops the signature, whatever the explanation offered.
The routine takes about a minute per lender once you have done it twice, and it works identically in all six jurisdictions because every regulator publishes its records. The only tool it requires is the exact entity name, which is also the first thing a legitimate lender publishes and the first thing a fake one obscures.
When a Lender Fails the Check
A state-license claim that fails the lookup is reportable to that regulator, and the report costs you two minutes plus a screenshot. A tribal claim with no tribe named fits the rent-a-charter pattern described in the internet lending rules. Collection threats that arrive before any loan was ever funded fail the scam checklist outright, and no further conversation is owed. In Maryland, two extra levers apply: the Office of Financial Regulation for lender claims, and the Collection Agency Licensing Board for collectors, whose debts pursued unlicensed are challengeable; both are covered in the Maryland laws guide. Keep the habit strict: no signature before a completed lookup, and no lookup by brand name when a legal entity name is available.
Whatever the outcome, keep a record of it: a screenshot of the lookup result and a copy of the license claim exactly as the lender made it. Regulators act faster on documented claims, and a saved result settles any later argument about what the site promised. The whole archive is three files: the claim, the search, and the contract.
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