Money being taken from your account right now? You can stop it, and you don't have to clear the loan first. Read this first →

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Verified against the state regulator Sources checked · 28 July 2026

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Payday loans in Arizona

No longer authorised. Arizona’s payday lending statute expired in 2010 — after voters refused to make it permanent — and these loans fell under the ordinary 36% cap.

Deferred presentment statute sunset 30 June 2010

Arizona did not ban payday lending. It let the law expire.

Arizona authorised payday lending by statute for about ten years, with a built-in sunset. When that statute expired on 30 June 2010, payday loans lost their exemption and fell under Arizona’s ordinary 36% consumer interest rate cap.Arizona · Legal scholarshipArizona Law Review — when Arizona's deferred presentment statute sunset on June 30, 2010, payday loans lost their privileged status and fell under the purview of Arizona's 36% consumer interest rate cap

The industry saw it coming. In 2008 it put a measure to voters that would have made payday lending permanent. Voters rejected it, and the statute expired on schedule.

Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 6-632 · Deferred presentment statute expired 30 June 2010

The rate structure that now applies

A licensed lender may charge up to 36% on a consumer loan with original principal of $3,000 or less. Above $3,000, the structure steps down — 36% on the first $3,000 and a lower rate on the balance.

The practical effect is that the two-week, triple-digit product has no lawful home in Arizona.

The lesson Arizona teaches about caps

Legal analysis of Arizona’s experience concluded that a rate cap alone is not sufficient — that the state also has to close the statutory routes by which lenders reach around it.Arizona · Legal scholarshipArizona Law Review — a state interest rate cap is not sufficient to protect Arizona consumers from the abuses of the payday loan industry; Arizona must first close the statutory loopholes that allow payday lenders to circumvent rate caps

That is the same conclusion Ohio reached the hard way, ten years apart, in two different states. See what happened in Ohio →

Payday lending
No longer authorised. The enabling statute expired 30 June 2010.
Rate cap now
36% on consumer loans with principal of $3,000 or less.
Above $3,000
36% on the first $3,000, and a lower rate on the balance.
How it ended
By sunset, after voters rejected a 2008 measure to make payday lending permanent.
Regulator
Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions
Statute
Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 6-632

If money is being taken from your account

You can revoke authorisation and instruct your bank to stop the payment, whatever your agreement says.

What Regulation E says about automatic payments →

Every figure carries the jurisdiction and the exact provision it came from. Click to open the source.

Debt-collection law in Arizona

A payday loan is a consumer debt. If it goes unpaid, two Arizona rules decide what a lender can do next: how long it has to sue you, and how much of your pay a court can order taken.

Being sued over an old payday loan? A collector can still file, but the time limit is a defence you can raise — and you cannot be jailed for the debt. What can and cannot happen if you don’t pay →

Sources. Arizona Law Review, Neither Borrower Nor Lender Be: The Future of Payday Lending in Arizona, 52 Ariz. L. Rev. 853 (2010). Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 6-632. Note: primary citation is to legal scholarship; a direct regulator citation is pending.
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