See the true cost of borrowing before you apply — including bi-weekly deductions from your paycheck.
Important: Lendly charges approximately 199% APR for payroll-deduction loans and 225% for non-payroll loans. These are among the highest rates in the consumer lending market. This calculator uses Lendly's daily interest accrual model to estimate your real cost.
Adjust the sliders to estimate your loan cost. Results update in real time.
* Estimates only using daily interest accrual at the stated APR. Actual payments depend on your specific loan agreement. Florida borrowers also pay a Documentary Stamp Tax of $0.35 per $100 borrowed.
The same $1,000 loan from alternative lenders:
This calculator uses Lendly's published APR structure — approximately 199% for loans of $1,000 or more and ~225% for loans under $1,000 — combined with a daily interest accrual model that mirrors the lender's actual repayment math. The output reflects the total finance charge you can expect to pay over the loan's life, broken into bi-weekly payment amounts, monthly amounts, and total dollars repaid.
The calculation assumes standard payroll deduction repayment with bi-weekly payments (26 payments per year) rather than the monthly figure displayed for convenience. Daily interest accrues on the outstanding principal balance, which means each successive payment reduces the principal slightly more — a structural feature of installment loans that differs from payday loans where the full balance is due in one payment.
The single most important figure to focus on is total interest paid — not the bi-weekly payment amount. A loan with low bi-weekly payments can still cost an enormous amount in total interest if it stretches over 18 months. Conversely, a loan with higher bi-weekly payments but a shorter term often costs less in total dollars.
For a $1,500 loan at 199% APR repaid over 12 months, the total interest paid is approximately $1,485. Stretching the same loan to 18 months reduces each bi-weekly payment by roughly $30 but increases total interest paid to approximately $2,220. That $735 difference represents the real cost of choosing a longer repayment window — money that comes directly out of your pocket in exchange for lower per-paycheck pressure.
To put Lendly's APR in context, the average U.S. credit card APR in 2026 is approximately 21-24%. The same $1,500 carried on a credit card at 24% APR for 12 months would accrue roughly $185 in interest — about 8 times less than the equivalent Lendly loan at 199% APR. This is not to say credit cards are universally better — borrowers with bad credit often cannot access a credit card with a $1,500 limit, and credit card minimum payments allow indefinite debt extension — but the cost gap is dramatic and worth understanding before committing.
If you have any active credit cards with available balance, draw from them first. The APR is invariably lower, and you maintain more cash flow flexibility than a Lendly payroll deduction provides.
Two strategies make the biggest dollar difference in reducing your total Lendly loan cost:
Subprime lenders consistently market their products by emphasizing the affordability of individual payments. "Just $52 every two weeks" sounds manageable. But this framing obscures the cumulative cost — that $52 across 26 paychecks per year over 18 months totals over $2,400 paid on a $1,500 loan.
The APR figure exists specifically to standardize this comparison across loan products. A 199% APR product will always cost dramatically more than a 36% credit union loan or even a 100% APR cash advance app, regardless of how the payments are structured. Use APR as your decision anchor, not the per-payment amount.
Lendly uses daily interest accrual on the outstanding principal balance, which is the same methodology used by most credit cards and modern installment lenders. Under this model, interest accumulates each day on the balance from the previous day, and the daily rate is the APR divided by 365. For a 199% APR loan, the daily rate is approximately 0.545%.
This compounding methodology has a counterintuitive consequence: making payments earlier in the billing cycle saves money. If you make an extra principal payment on day 1 of a cycle rather than day 14, you have stopped interest accrual on that principal for 13 additional days. On a $1,500 balance, those 13 days at 0.545% daily represent roughly $106 in saved interest accrual.
For borrowers who receive paychecks bi-weekly and have small amounts left over after expenses, applying the surplus to Lendly principal immediately rather than holding it for the next scheduled deduction has measurable cost benefits. Many borrowers do not realize this because credit cards typically have grace periods that mask the daily accrual; subprime installment loans do not.
The subprime lending industry consistently markets loans by emphasizing manageable per-payment amounts. "Just $52 every two weeks" sounds affordable when viewed in isolation. But this framing obscures the cumulative dollar cost — the total amount transferred from the borrower's pocket to the lender over the life of the loan.
The APR figure exists specifically to standardize cost comparisons across loan products. The CFPB consumer guidance on APR emphasizes that APR is the single most reliable comparison metric for any consumer loan. A 199% APR loan will always cost dramatically more than a 36% credit union loan, regardless of how the per-payment amounts are structured.
Use APR as your decision anchor, not bi-weekly payment amount. Calculate the total dollar cost using our calculator above and compare against alternatives. If you have any access to credit cards, 0% intro offers, family loans, or credit union products, use those first. Our complete alternatives guide walks through each lower-cost option in detail.