You can get a payday loan really quick, generally from within a few hours up to 24 hours. And, if you’ve already gotten one through the same company before, you might have the money within just minutes. Since they don’t do credit checks, you can even get one if you have bad credit, or have filed bankruptcy.

While a payday loan can be the perfect way to come up with fast money in an emergency, they can get you into deep trouble. They may be easy to get, but they’re very expensive. Lenders generally charge from between $15 and $25 for every hundred dollars that you borrow for two weeks. If you borrow $500, that’s an extra $125 that you have to pay back.

The maximum amount that you are allowed to borrow is restricted by the governments of each state. In most cases you’re only allowed to borrow as much as $400 or $500, although in some areas that amount could be as much as $1,000. And, while some lenders may allow you 30 days to repay the loan, many will require payment within two weeks.

If the balance owed on the debt is fairly small, some lenders won’t pursue collection of payment. They will simply write the debt off as a loss since it will probably cost them more to collect the amount owed from you than what you owed in the first place.

In some cases in order to obtain at least part of the money that is owed to them, the lender may choose to sell your debt to a collection agency. If this happens, the collection agency will then begin to pursue ways in which to force you to pay off the existing balance.

If the charge off involved a great deal of money, the lender will generally turn the debt over to an attorney. The attorney will act in much the same way as a collection agency and try to collect the money. If the attorney can’t get you to pay, they may take the matter to court  to obtain an official judgment against you.