Payday Loan Caps and Fees: Six Rulebooks, One Table
The whole Old Line region on one page: the banned-storefront caps of Maryland (33% APR), Pennsylvania (6%), and Washington, DC (24%); the 36% all-in rule in Virginia and Illinois; Delaware's licensed market with no fee cap; and the statute and regulator behind every row.
Six jurisdictions sit inside this site’s coverage, and they do not agree about small-dollar credit. The table below is the shortest honest summary we can make of them; each row links the full rulebook behind it.
Three legal realities explain every row. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC cap small-loan interest at 33%, 6%, and 24% respectively, price levels at which storefront payday lending cannot operate, so none of the three licenses the product. Virginia and Illinois take the opposite route: both license consumer credit and hold it to a 36% all-in figure. Delaware licenses advances up to $1,000 and, alone in this region, places no cap on the fee, leaving the price to the contract.
One caution before you scroll. A cap does not make a loan cheap, and the numbers here do not tell you whether an online or tribal lender must hold a state license at all; that is exactly what they define. We re-verify each row against its regulator, most recently in October 2026, and the full verification routine takes about ten minutes with the steps in our license lookup guide.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Max loan | Fee regime | Term | Approx. APR | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | Allowed | $1,000 | No fee cap (set by contract) | Max 60 days | ~391% - ~520% | Del. Code tit. 5, § 2227 et seq. Office of the State Bank Commissioner of Delaware |
| Illinois | 36% APR Cap | none licensed | 36% APR Cap | N/A | Max 36% | 815 ILCS 123/ (Predatory Loan Prevention Act) Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation |
| Maryland | Banned | none licensed | 33% APR Cap | N/A | Max 33% | Md. Code Ann., Com. Law § 12-301 et seq. Maryland Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation |
| Pennsylvania | Banned | none licensed | 6% APR Cap | N/A | Max 6% | 7 P.S. § 6201 et seq. (Consumer Discount Company Act) Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities |
| Virginia | 36% APR Cap | $2,500 | 36% APR + $25 monthly maintenance fee | 120-730 days | Max 36% | Va. Code Ann. § 6.2-1800 et seq. (Fairness in Lending Act) Virginia State Corporation Commission - Bureau of Financial Institutions |
| Washington, DC | Banned | none licensed | 24% APR Cap | N/A | Max 24% | D.C. Code § 28-3301 / D.C. Code § 26-301 et seq. District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking |
How we build this table
Every row is transcribed from the statute that governs consumer small loans in that jurisdiction and cross-checked against the regulator that licenses lenders, linked in the Source column. We do not recompute lender pricing: the fee column is the statutory regime, and the APR column shows the annualized figure the jurisdiction publishes or the market's common range where the statute sets none.
Rules checked: October 2026 · table maintained by Lena Pindell. Statutes change; if a row ever disagrees with the regulator's current publication, the regulator wins, and we would be grateful if you told us.