Extended Payment Plans: Your State May Require One

Most people who fall behind on a payday loan don’t know that their state may legally require the lender to offer them a way out that doesn’t involve a rollover fee. It’s called an Extended Payment Plan, or EPP, and asking for one — at the right moment, in the right way — can be the difference between paying off a loan in manageable installments and paying fee after fee to keep pushing the due date back.

What an EPP actually is

An Extended Payment Plan takes the lump sum you owe on your next payday and splits it into several smaller installments, paid across your next few pay dates instead of all at once. Critically, this is meant to happen at no extra fee and no additional interest beyond what you already owed — it restructures the timing of repayment, not the cost of the loan. That makes it fundamentally different from a rollover, where you pay a fresh fee just to push the same full balance two more weeks down the road.

Which states require an EPP

The CFPB’s April 2022 survey of state extended payment plan laws found 16 states with an EPP provision in their payday lending law. In 13 of them the statute says the lender shall offer the plan when the borrower asks; in California and Delaware it says the lender may. The rules differ in the details:

Requirement	States
Lender must offer a plan on request	Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Lender may offer a plan (its choice)	California, Delaware, Mississippi
At least four installments	Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming
At least three installments	Michigan, Washington
No additional fee for the plan	Every EPP state except Michigan
Limited to one plan per 12 months	Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Two cautions before you rely on the table. It reflects the law as the CFPB surveyed it in 2022, and state legislatures change these statutes; confirm the current rule with your state regulator, which our payday loan laws by state guide links for every state. And many of the states not listed cap small-loan rates at a level that keeps traditional payday lenders out entirely, so the absence of an EPP law does not mean the absence of protection.

The practical point is the same either way: don’t assume your lender is being generous if it offers a plan, and don’t assume it is right if it tells you one isn’t available.

Industry self-regulation fills some of the gap

Even in states that don’t mandate an EPP by law, you may still be able to get one. The Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), the largest payday lending trade association, publishes standards for its members whose item 11 commits each member to “make available to customers who are unable to repay a loan according to its original contract terms, the option of repaying the loan over a longer period of time,” following state law where it exists and the association’s own plan guidelines where it does not. The same document commits members not to pursue criminal action against a borrower over an unpaid loan. If your lender displays the CFSA seal, cite the pledge by name when you ask, even in a state with no legal EPP requirement.

The catch: timing, and usually in writing

EPPs come with conditions, and they matter. The typical pattern — though it varies by state and lender, so confirm your own lender’s specific policy — looks like this:

• You generally need to ask before the loan is due, not after you’ve already missed the payment. Once you’re in default, many lenders no longer consider you eligible.
• The request is often expected in writing, even if you also call — an email or a written note creates a record that you asked, and when.
• You can typically only use an EPP a limited number of times per year, once per 12 months in seven of the states in the table above, so it’s not a tool for repeated use on the same recurring shortfall.

Because the exact rules differ by state and lender, treat these as typical conditions to expect, and confirm the specifics with your own lender before you rely on them.

The script to use

Call or, better, email the lender before your due date, and be direct about it:

“I want to request an Extended Payment Plan on my loan before it’s due. Please confirm whether an EPP is available under [your state]‘s payday lending regulations or under your company’s policy, and send me the EPP terms in writing.”

Naming the EPP specifically matters — it signals you know it exists as a formal option, not something you’re hoping the lender will improvise. If the representative seems unfamiliar with the request, ask to be transferred to someone who handles hardship or payment-plan requests specifically.

What happens to fees and interest during an EPP

Under a typical EPP, fees and interest on the original loan are frozen for the duration of the plan — you repay the same total amount you already owed, spread across installments, rather than accumulating new charges as you go. This is the entire point of the arrangement: it changes when you pay, not how much. If a lender tries to add a fee for setting up an EPP, that’s worth double-checking against your state’s rules, since a genuine EPP is usually meant to come at no extra cost.

Why an EPP beats a rollover — a worked comparison

Take an illustrative $400 payday loan with a $60 fee due in full on your next payday. If you can’t pay and roll it over instead, you pay the $60 fee again just to push the same $400 principal back another two weeks — and if you can’t pay again, that repeats. Roll it over three times and you’ve paid $240 in fees alone, on top of still owing the original $400.

Now compare an EPP on the same loan, split into four installments across your next four pay dates. You’d owe the original $460 (principal plus the one fee already incurred) divided into four payments of roughly $115 each, with no new fees added as you go. Same total obligation, but no compounding fee, and a schedule that’s realistic against four separate paychecks instead of one. The EPP doesn’t make the loan cheap — it just stops it from getting more expensive while you pay it off.

If the lender refuses

If you ask for an EPP in a state where it’s required and the lender refuses, don’t leave it there. Your state’s financial regulatory agency — often called a department of financial institutions or a division of banking — licenses payday lenders and takes complaints about exactly this kind of refusal. You can also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which accepts complaints about payday lenders nationally regardless of state. Keep a written record of your request and the lender’s response either way; it’s the strongest evidence you have if you need to escalate.

If a plan is not available to you

When there is no EPP to be had, the goal shifts from restructuring the loan to keeping it from multiplying, and none of the moves below involve borrowing more:

1. Decide whether the debit should run. If the full payment will bounce, a failed debit costs you a bank fee and a lender fee and may be tried again. The CFPB’s page on stopping a payday lender from taking money out of your account sets out the steps: revoke the authorization with the lender in writing, tell your bank, and if needed place a stop-payment order at least three business days before the scheduled debit. Stopping the payment does not cancel the debt.
2. Offer a partial payment in writing. A lender that cannot offer a formal plan can still accept what you can pay this cycle; put the offer in writing and ask for written confirmation of the remaining balance.
3. Talk to a nonprofit credit counselor. The NFCC agency finder locates a member agency near you; an initial session costs nothing and a counselor can put the loan inside a plan for all of your debts.
4. Know what happens if the loan goes unpaid. Our guide to what happens if you default on a payday loan covers the collection process, your rights, and the fact that an unpaid loan is a civil matter.

If you’re already deeper into a cycle of repeat borrowing rather than a single loan you’re trying to close out, our guide on escaping the payday loan cycle covers the wider strategy. And if the shortfall is really about a different bill entirely, what to do if you can’t make this month’s payment covers negotiating directly with that creditor first.