Questions, answered plainly.

No. StraightSum is an educational site and a referral service. We publish loan calculators and guides, and we can help connect consumers with independent lenders or lending partners where state law allows. We do not make credit decisions, issue funds, set rates or fees, or service loan accounts. If you already have a loan, your lender is the only party who can act on it.

Our tools and referral service are free to use. Partners pay us for completed forms submitted through /apply-now/. Whether a submission qualifies for payment, and the amount paid, depend on the partner's criteria. A completed form is not a loan approval or a promise of funding. Compensation does not change our calculator results.

It can influence whether a particular partner appears in the network you are matched with. It does not change our calculator outputs, our guides, or which option we tell you is cheapest. Several of the options we recommend most often — credit-union Payday Alternative Loans, biller payment plans, employer wage advances, nonprofit counseling — pay us nothing at all.

You complete a form operated by an independent third-party provider, clearly labeled as such on the page. That provider routes your information to lenders in its network. If a lender makes an offer, they must give you the APR, the finance charge, the total of payments, and the payment schedule in writing before you sign. If you accept and e-sign, the lender funds and services the loan and we step out of the process entirely.

Eight, grouped by the question you are actually asking. Before borrowing: Paycheck Planner (a daily spending limit until payday), Debt-to-Income (whether another payment fits), and Affordability (what a payment you can manage actually supports). Choosing an offer: Total Cost (estimated APR with fees folded in, plus the full schedule), Compare Offers (which of two is genuinely cheaper), and a Readiness checklist. Already borrowing: Payoff Accelerator (what an extra $25 or $50 removes) and Rollover Cost (what renewal fees compound to).

Yes, and in a specific technical sense: it never leaves your device. The Dashboard, the Paycheck Planner, and the calculators store what you enter in your own browser using the Web Storage API. There is no account, no login, and nothing transmitted to our servers. Two consequences follow, and the second matters — we cannot see your figures, and we cannot recover them either. Clearing your browser data deletes them permanently, which is why the Dashboard offers an export.

Yes, through a calendar file rather than browser notifications. The Dashboard generates a standard .ics file containing six months of your due dates, each with an alert two days before. Open it once and the dates land in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook. We chose this over push notifications deliberately: it needs no permission prompt, works on every platform including iOS, survives the browser being closed, and requires no server — so none of your dates reach us.

The Dashboard has an Export button that downloads a JSON file, and a Restore button that reads one back in. Because nothing is stored on our servers, this is the only backup that exists. If you rely on the tracker, export it once a month — clearing your browser cache is otherwise permanent data loss, and we have no copy to give you.

No. It is a standalone organizational tool with no connection to any lender's systems. You enter the details yourself, and recording a payment here changes only this page — it does not pay anything and does not affect your real balance. Always confirm your balance and due date with the lender directly.

Yes. Most calculators store their inputs in the address bar, so copying the URL captures the whole scenario — a counselor can prepare a comparison in advance and email the link before a session. Each one also prints with a dated header carrying the inputs and the URL, so a printout is still interpretable weeks later rather than being a screenshot of unexplained numbers.

It depends on your state's law and on which lenders are currently participating, and both change. The reliable way to check is your state financial regulator — the CSBS directory resolves to the right agency in any state — and NMLS Consumer Access, which tells you whether a specific lender is licensed to lend where you live. Our state pages point you at both. Where a state prohibits this type of product, no lender can waive that, and we say so rather than sending you into a form that cannot work.

No. Many states cap consumer credit at or near 36% APR, which displaces high-cost single-payment lending entirely, and several prohibit it outright. Others permit it with limits on amount, term, and renewals. If you live in a capped state, the alarming end of every published APR range simply cannot be offered to you — which is genuinely good news and worth establishing before you compare anything. Confirm the current position with your state regulator.

Typically: 18 or older, a legal U.S. resident, verifiable income, an active bank account in your own name, and a valid phone and email. Lenders may ask for more. Two things worth adding that are not the lender's requirement but ought to be yours — that you understand the APR and the total cost, and that the payment fits your budget in a month where something goes wrong, not just an ordinary one.

Lenders in this market do consider applicants with imperfect credit, and initial matching often uses a soft inquiry that does not affect your score. Approval and pricing are the lender's decision. Nobody can guarantee approval before verification, and any site claiming otherwise is describing a fraud pattern rather than a product.

Practices vary by lender and by stage. Many lenders use a soft inquiry for initial review, which does not affect your score. Final underwriting may involve a hard inquiry, which can lower it temporarily. The lender must tell you before running one — read the consent language rather than assuming, and be suspicious of any site that promises no credit impact unconditionally.

Four numbers and four terms. The numbers: the APR, the finance charge, the total of payments, and the payment schedule — all required in writing under the Truth in Lending Act. The terms: whether early repayment is free, what the late and returned-payment fees are, whether the lender reports to the credit bureaus, and whether the fee is deducted from your proceeds or added to the balance. Then enter their figures into our calculator; if the monthly payment or the total differs by more than a few cents, ask why before signing.

A one-time charge, usually deducted from the loan proceeds before the money reaches you, typically 0% to 10% of the principal. It matters because interest accrues on the full amount while you receive less than that. Borrow $500 at 36% with a 5% fee and you receive $475 but repay as though you received $500 — a real cost of roughly 46%, not 36%. On a short term the gap is wider still, because the same fee is spread over fewer payments.

Some lenders fund the same or next business day after approval, but this is never guaranteed. Timing depends on identity and income verification, cut-off times, weekends and holidays, and your own bank's processing. Speed is also the weakest reason to choose a lender: the rate outlasts the wait by every month of the term.

Usually yes — most lenders require ACH authorization, and scheduled payments are pulled on the dates you agreed to. Read that authorization carefully, because it determines what happens in a month when the balance is short. A single returned debit can trigger a lender fee and a bank fee together, which makes the real risk of a loan higher than the APR alone suggests.

Your rights depend on the agreement, the payment method, and applicable law. Contact the lender about how to revoke or change authorization, and speak to your bank as well. One thing to be clear about: stopping a payment does not cancel the debt, and it may have other consequences. Ask both parties before acting.

Contact the lender before the due date, not after — the conversation is materially easier and no fee has landed yet. Ask specifically whether a hardship plan or an extended payment plan is available; in several states one must be offered, though rarely without being requested. Do not take a second loan to cover the first, which converts one expensive debt into two. If several loans are already outstanding, an NFCC-affiliated nonprofit counselor can often renegotiate them, usually free for the first consultation.

The one with the highest APR, regardless of balance size. That is the avalanche method and it saves the most money, because interest does not care which debt feels more satisfying to close. Some people do better clearing a small balance first for the momentum — that is the snowball method, it costs more in interest, and if it is the approach you will actually sustain then it is the better one for you. A method you follow beats a method you admire.

More than most people expect. An extra payment goes entirely to principal, so it stops interest accruing on that amount for every remaining month of the term. At high rates the saving is disproportionate to the amount committed. Two things to confirm with the lender first: whether there is a prepayment penalty, and that they will apply the extra to principal rather than crediting it toward your next scheduled payment — say so in writing, then check the next statement.

In rough order of cost, and none of these pays us anything: a credit-union Payday Alternative Loan, capped at 28% APR by federal rule; a payment plan from whoever you owe, which utility and medical providers grant routinely if you ask before the due date; earned-wage access through your payroll provider, which many now offer at little or no cost; local assistance via 211 for rent, utility, and food programs; and a free consultation with an NFCC-affiliated nonprofit counselor.

The form is operated by an independent third-party provider, and information entered into it goes to that provider and to lenders in its network so they can evaluate it. That is what makes the referral possible, and it cannot be recalled once sent. If you are not comfortable with it, do not complete the form — the calculators and guides are free and require nothing. Our Privacy Policy names every third party operating on this site.

Very little. The calculators, the Dashboard, and the Planner use no cookies at all — they use browser storage on your own device and send nothing. One strictly necessary item records your cookie choice itself. Optional analytics and advertising categories exist in the consent banner and are off unless you turn them on. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as an opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information without requiring you to interact with the banner at all.

Use the Privacy Center, linked in the footer, or email info@straightsum.com. Depending on your state you may have the right to know, access, delete, correct, opt out of sale or sharing, and limit the use of sensitive information. We respond within 45 days and will tell you if we need the additional 45 the statute allows. One limit worth stating: once a lender has your information they become an independent controller of it, so a deletion request to us does not reach their records — you would need to contact them.

Yes. Active-duty servicemembers and covered dependents are protected by the Military Lending Act, which caps most consumer credit at a 36% military APR and restricts certain terms, including rollovers of covered loans. Confirm applicability before accepting any offer, and read the disclosures — the protection is real but it is not applied automatically by every lender in every product.

Four signals, any one of which is enough to walk away. A fee requested before funding — that is advance-fee fraud essentially without exception, since legitimate U.S. lenders deduct fees from proceeds or add them to the balance. A guarantee of approval, which is impossible before verification and therefore only offered by operations that are not verifying anything. Pressure to sign immediately, because a legitimate offer survives being read overnight. And a lender you cannot find on NMLS Consumer Access who cannot explain why.

Start with the lender in writing. If that fails, complain to your state financial regulator and to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. Both are free, neither requires a lawyer, and both are read. Unlicensed lending, undisclosed fees, and collection harassment are exactly what these channels exist for.