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Permitted — with a 13-day minimum before your check can be deposited, and exactly one extension allowed.
Rhode Island enacted a 36% APR cap on payday loans in 2025, which takes effect 1 January 2027.Rhode Island · 2025 lawRhode Island enacted a 36% APR cap on payday loans in 2025, effective 1 January 2027. Center for Responsible Lending, “Rhode Island Governor Signs into Law Interest Rate Cap that Stops Payday Loan Debt Traps.” That is far below the roughly 261% APR typical in the state today, and in practice ends storefront payday lending as it now operates. Until that date, the rules on this page still apply.
Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation
The Department sets it out directly: if you cannot cover the check when it falls due, you may pay an additional fee to defer the deposit — but in Rhode Island a payday loan can only be extended ONE time.Rhode Island · RegulatorRhode Island Department of Business Regulation — if you are unable to cover the deposit at the originally scheduled time you can pay an additional fee to the check casher to defer or extend the deposit date; in Rhode Island a payday loan can only be extended ONE time
There is also a floor on the term: the minimum period before the check casher may deposit is 13 days.
Rhode Island law defines a deferred-deposit transaction as any transaction commonly known as a payday loan, payday advance or deferred-presentment loan, in which cash is advanced against a personal check or an authorisation to debit the account, with an agreement not to cash or debit until a future date.Rhode Island · StatuteR.I. Gen. Laws § 19-14-1(5) — deferred-deposit transaction means any transaction, such as those commonly known as payday loans, payday advances or deferred-presentment loans, in which a cash advance is made in exchange for the customer's personal check or authorization to debit the deposit account
That drafting matters. A lender cannot escape the chapter by renaming the product, because the definition follows the mechanics rather than the label.
You can revoke authorisation and instruct your bank to stop the payment, whatever your agreement says.
What Regulation E says about automatic payments →
A payday loan is a consumer debt. If it goes unpaid, two Rhode Island 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 →