If you've ever found yourself needing cash quickly - maybe you had to fix your car or perhaps one of your children chipped their teeth and you had to take them to the dentist - you may have gone on the Internet and applied for one of the readily available online payday loans.

Hopefully you didn't just pick the first online payday loan company that you came across because they are not all the same. Some of these financial institutions charge higher interest rates than others. And some cash advance companies offer much longer pay back periods than others.

In other words, a little bit of research may be able to save you a lot of money and give you more time to repay the money that you need.

How Payday Loan Rates Differ

All payday loan companies charge considerable higher interest than most banks or credit unions. One of the reasons that they do that is because they do not consider your credit score when deciding whether or not to lend you money. Their main concern is that you have some sort of steady income. This way you will have the ability to repay the money you borrow.

Nonetheless, the lowest interest rates available at some cash advance loan companies is approximately ten percent. The highest is in the neighborhood of thirty percent.

That is not per year. That's for a fourteen day lending period.

In other words, for every $100 you borrow, depending on the pay day loan company, you will have to repay between $110 and $130 within a couple of weeks. Can you see why it's so important to look for a company that offers the lowest rates?

How Long Do You Have to Repay Your Loan?

Most pay day advance companies want to be repaid within 14 days. Although many will let you roll over your loan after you've paid a certain minimum amount, they will charge you additional interest. Some will let you roll your loan over a couple of times.

However, there is an online pay day loan company that will lend you the same amount of money that you could borrow elsewhere but, unlike the others, they will give you up to 100 days to repay your loan. You will still have to pay more interest, but you will have that extra cushion of time if you need it.

In any case, because the interest rates are so high for any cash advance, most people will not get any online payday loans unless a real financial emergency arises. Even then, if they have the time, they look at the offers from a number of companies before picking the one with the lowest interest rates.

That's why many people do this type of research before they need a loan. That way they will know that they can go online and get the money they need quickly, at the lowest rates available.