Florida Payday Loan Rules: Fees, Limits, and the 60-Day Grace Period (2026)

Florida is one of the states that allows payday lending and also one of the states that regulates it in detail. The rules are not scattered across case law or agency guidance; they sit in one part of one statute, Florida Statutes chapter 560, part IV, and the state regulator restates them in plain language on a consumer page of its own. This guide walks through each rule, works out what it means in dollars, and covers the one protection most Florida borrowers never use because nobody tells them it exists. For where Florida sits relative to every other state, our payday loan laws by state guide has the full map.

What Florida calls a payday loan

Florida law does not use the words “payday loan.” The product is a deferred presentment transaction: you write the lender a check (or authorize a debit) for the amount you borrow plus the fee, and the lender agrees to hold it until an agreed date. The lender is a deferred presentment provider, licensed as a money services business by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, the OFR, under chapter 560. Every rule below applies to a licensed provider, which is why the license check at the end of this guide matters.

The rules, in one table

All of the following come from section 560.404 of the 2026 Florida Statutes, read on September 21, 2026, and from the OFR’s consumer page. The section was last amended in 2018.

Rule	Single-payment loan	Installment loan (added 2018)
Maximum amount	$500, exclusive of fees	$1,000 outstanding balance, exclusive of fees
Fee cap	10% of the amount provided	8% of the outstanding balance, charged on a biweekly basis
Verification fee	Set by rule, not to exceed $5	Same
Term	7 to 31 days	60 to 90 days
Payments	One, on the due date	Consecutive, as nearly equal as practicable, 13 days to 1 month apart
Loans at a time	One, checked against a statewide database	One
Between loans	24 hours after the previous one is paid off	Same
Rollovers	Prohibited	Prohibited
Prepayment penalty	Prohibited	Prohibited
If you cannot pay	60-day grace period at no additional charge, on request	One scheduled payment can be deferred to the end, on request

Two things the table implies. First, the fee is a flat percentage of the loan, not an interest rate, so a $500 loan costs the same $50 whether it runs 7 days or 31. Second, because the amount and the fee are both capped and rollovers are banned, the worst case on a single Florida payday loan is bounded in a way it is not in Texas, where a broker fee sits outside the cap.

What the single-payment loan costs

Take the maximum $500 for the common two-week term:

	Amount
Borrowed	$500
Fee at 10%	$50
Verification fee (maximum)	$5
Due on the date the check is held to	$555
Fee as a share of the loan	11% for the term
Annualized over 14 days	About 287% APR
Annualized over 31 days	About 130% APR

The APR falls as the term lengthens because the fee does not change. If the lender offers you a choice of due dates, the later one inside the 31-day limit costs nothing extra and gives you more time to cover the check. What you cannot do is extend past the due date by paying the fee again; that is the rollover the statute prohibits, and it is the mechanism that turns a $50 fee into $200 in states that allow it. The payday cost calculator on our payday loans page lets you run your own amount and term.

What the installment version costs

Since 2018 a Florida provider can also offer a deferred presentment installment transaction: up to $1,000, repaid over 60 to 90 days in roughly equal installments spaced between 13 days and a month apart. The fee is capped at 8% of the outstanding balance on a biweekly basis, which works out to roughly 208% annualized while a balance is outstanding, and it must be fully amortizing, so each payment reduces what you owe. You can prepay without penalty, and because the fee is charged on the outstanding balance, paying early actually reduces the total cost, which is not true of the single-payment loan.

The dollar cost depends on the schedule, so ask the lender for the federal Truth in Lending box before you sign: it states the finance charge in dollars, the APR, and the total of payments. The total of payments is the number to compare against what you would owe on a single-payment loan or on one of the alternatives.

The 60-day grace period: the rule to know before the due date

This is the part of Florida’s statute that matters most and that lenders rarely volunteer. Section 560.404(22) says that for a single-payment loan, if, by the end of the loan term, you tell the provider in writing or in person that you cannot pay in full, the provider must extend the agreement for an additional 60 days after the original due date, without any additional charge.

There is one condition, and it is not optional. You must make an appointment with a consumer credit counseling agency within seven days after the end of the loan term and complete the counseling by the end of the grace period. The OFR’s consumer page states it the same way: the grace period “is dependent upon the borrower making an appointment with a Consumer Credit Counseling Service within 7 days and completing the counseling within the 60-day grace period.” If you skip the counseling, the provider is no longer bound by the grace period and can present the check and pursue the debt.

How to use it:

1. Ask before the due date, in writing. An email or a signed note at the storefront both satisfy the statute. Say that you cannot pay the full amount on the due date and that you are requesting the 60-day grace period under section 560.404(22). Keep a copy.
2. Book the counseling appointment within seven days. The NFCC agency finder locates a nonprofit member agency, and an initial session costs nothing.
3. Finish the counseling and keep the proof. A completion letter or certificate is what the provider will ask for.
4. Do not let the debit run if it will bounce. The grace period stops the lender presenting the check, but if you also gave a debit authorization, confirm in writing that it will not be run on the original date. The CFPB’s page on stopping a payday lender from taking money out of your account covers the steps if the lender does not cooperate.

The installment version has its own, smaller relief: under section 560.404(23), if you tell the provider in writing or in person by noon of the business day before a scheduled payment that you cannot pay it in full, the provider must let you defer that payment, at no additional fee, until after the last scheduled payment. Only one deferral is allowed per loan.

The grace period is Florida’s version of the extended payment plan that other states require; our extended payment plans guide compares the state rules.

What a Florida lender cannot do

• Prosecute you over the check. Section 560.406 says a person who writes a check under a deferred presentment agreement is not subject to criminal penalty, and section 560.404(20) requires every agreement to carry a notice in at least 14-point type stating that you cannot be prosecuted in criminal court for the check, though “all legally available civil means to enforce the debt may be pursued.” A collector who threatens arrest over a Florida payday loan is wrong, and our guide to what happens if you default on a payday loan covers what the civil process actually looks like.
• Present the check after you have said you cannot pay. Section 560.404(21) bars the provider from depositing or presenting your check once you have told it, in writing or in person, that you cannot pay in full, as long as you meet the grace-period conditions. The same subsection says no additional fees or penalties may be imposed because your account turned out to have insufficient funds, and that additional fees may not be added to the amount you owe.
• Lend to you while another loan is open. The provider must query the OFR’s database before every transaction. A lender that does not check, or that lends while you have a loan outstanding elsewhere, is violating its license terms.
• Roll the loan over or pay one loan off with another. Both are prohibited outright.

Check the license, especially online

The OFR’s consumer page makes one point repeatedly: verify the license, and be “especially careful to check the license if the payday lender is doing business online.” Chapter 560 binds licensed Florida providers. An online lender with no Florida license, including some tribal and offshore operations, may not follow any of the rules above and may be hard to reach when something goes wrong. Two steps:

1. Verify a license on the OFR site, or call (850) 487-9687, option 1, before you sign.
2. If a licensed provider breaks a rule, submit a complaint to the OFR. The OFR’s Division of Consumer Finance regulates these lenders and takes complaints directly. You can also file with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Before you borrow in Florida

A Florida payday loan is more contained than in most states that allow the product: the amount is capped, the fee is capped, rollovers are banned, and there is a legal way to get 60 more days if you ask in time. It is still $55 for two weeks’ use of $500, or an installment loan at roughly 208% annualized. If the gap you are covering is larger than one paycheck, payday loan alternatives that actually work covers the cheaper options, and if the real problem is a bill you cannot pay this month, what to do if you can’t make this month’s payment starts with that creditor rather than a new loan. If you have decided to proceed, payday loans explained walks through the loan from the application to the day the money comes back out.

This is general information about Florida law as published in the 2026 Florida Statutes and on the OFR’s website, not legal or financial advice. Confirm current figures with the lender’s Truth in Lending disclosure and with the OFR before you borrow.