There has been a lot of talk and lies about the negative side of a cash advance lately. It would be very beneficial if this was all cleared up. Hopefully everyone will know the truth about cash advances.
First of all, a cash advance is the same thing as a personal or payday loan. They are short-term loans that are applied for and then taken out for about two weeks. That means at the end of the two weeks the amount that was borrowed plus the interest fee is due. Once everything is paid off, the loan is complete!
Where people get hung up on is the interest fee. When you look at the interest rate for a cash advance, you will probably notice it is a high number. What you need to realize though, is that high number is an amount for an annual rate.
The interest rate on loans is measured with APR, which stands for annual percentage rate. Since a cash advance is only two weeks long, measuring the interest as if it were taken out for a whole year skews the numbers.
To clear things up with a small example, if a cash advance of $100 with a 390% APR was taken out, the interest after two weeks would total to just $15. That makes the amount due at the end of the loan come out to be $115. That's a much smaller amount than an overdue bill charge or an overdraft fee.
The most important thing to remember is that you control whether you want a loan or not. So whatever you do, please use a cash advance responsibly.