It won’t do any good to preach at you about all of the interest you’re paying on your payday loan. The fact of the matter is that, if you could pay off your payday loan, you probably would. Most folks that take out a payday loan wind up renewing the loan at least once or twice, not because they want to pay more interest but because they can’t afford to pay it off.

Still, you need to find a way to make progress. You need to reduce the amount of your payday loan debt every payday, even if it’s just by a little bit.

Something is better than nothing

Again, if you can just pay off your payday loan, do it. You’ll save a bunch of money. If you can’t, though, you need to make progress each payday.

Let’s say you owe $300 on a payday loan and that the fee for the loan is $20. That means on payday you have $320 due. You have to pay off the loan, of course, but you may not then have enough money to live on. So, you need to take out another payday loan, but this time try to take less.

Maybe you can take $250, for example. Your fee might be $17.50, but next payday you’ll only own $267.50 rather than $320. If you can reduce the amount you owe by just $50 each payday, you’ll get the whole thing paid off within about 4 months. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than paying it for a year.

A breather can help, too

So, let’s assume that you do need some of that money to live on, as in the above example. Who says you need it the same day you pay off your payday loan? You don’t. Wait a few days to take out your next payday loan. If you can wait just 4 extra days, within three or four pay cycles you’ll have an extra paycheck in there somewhere, and will have saved yourself quite a bit in fees.

This approach, when you combine it with the idea of paying at least some of your loan off each time, will help you to get your payday loan paid off quicker and save you money.