Louisiana Payday Loan Rules: What the $350 Cap Means in Practice

Louisiana is one of the states that chose to regulate payday lending rather than ban it, and the result is a product with hard edges written into statute. If you live in Marrero, Baton Rouge, or anywhere between, the rules below apply identically to every licensed lender you will meet — storefront or online.

The cap: $350, full stop

Louisiana law treats a payday loan as a deferred presentment transaction: you write (or electronically authorize) a check for the amount plus the fee, and the lender agrees to hold it until your payday. The statute — La. R.S. 9:3578.1 and its successors — sets the maximum at $350. First-time borrowers are often approved for less, typically $100 to $300, until a repayment record is established.

That cap is why amounts above $350 on this site are routed to installment loans, which have their own rules and their own written schedules.

The fee: fixed by law, disclosed as APR

The finance charge is not invented per customer. On a standard transaction the lender charges 16.75% of the check amount, plus a small database fee required by the state. On a $200 advance that lands around $35; on the full $350, near $60. Because the term is short, the federal APR disclosure — required under the Truth in Lending Act — looks dramatic even when the dollar cost is modest. Both numbers must appear in your agreement before you e-sign anything.

No rollovers, no stacking

Three rules do most of the consumer protection work:

• No rollover. An unpaid loan cannot be flipped into a fresh one with a new fee. Compare that to states where borrowers roll a loan five or six times and pay the fee each round.
• One loan at a time. A Louisiana lender cannot stack a second payday loan on top of an unpaid first.
• A state database tracks it. Lenders must check a real-time database before every new loan — the same system that enforces the cap and the one-loan rule.

Who enforces all this

The Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions (OFI) licenses and examines deferred presentment lenders. If a lender breaks the fee schedule, the database rules, or collections conduct, the OFI is the enforcement body — and complaints can be filed through it directly.

What this means when you borrow

The practical takeaway is simple: any Louisiana lender quoting more than $350 for a payday product, hiding the fee until after signing, or offering a “rollover” is operating outside the rules. Licensed lenders follow the script because their license depends on it.

Need more than $350? Compare installment loans or personal loans — same online request, longer repayment structure.

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