Cash advance app rules in South Carolina

Fees

• No dollar cap on consumer fees appears in the Act.
• The provider must offer at least one reasonable no-cost option and clearly explain how to choose it (39-5-840(2)).
• Before providing EWA, the provider must give a plain-language document disclosing fees it may impose and describing how to get proceeds at no cost (39-5-840(3)).
• "Fee" covers delivery or expedited delivery fees and subscription or membership fees; a voluntary tip is not a fee (39-5-820(7)).

Tips

• Immediately before each transaction, the provider must clearly disclose that a tip may be zero and is voluntary (39-5-840(7)).
• The service contract must say that the amount and frequency of advances do not depend on tips (39-5-840(7)).
• No misleading statements about tips, and no claims that tips benefit specific individuals (39-5-840(7)).
• The provider may not share fees or tips with the employer (39-5-850(1)).

Other rules

• No late fees, interest or penalties for non-repayment, and no deferral fees (39-5-850(2), (4)).
• No soliciting a consumer to delay repayment to increase non-mandatory payments (39-5-850(5)).
• No credit bureau or debt collector reporting; no requiring a credit score; no credit card payments (39-5-850(3), (6), (7)).
• No lawsuits, third-party collection or debt sales to collect, except for fraud (39-5-850(9)).
• Advances may not exceed the consumer's earned but unpaid income, except for administrative or technical errors (39-5-850(10)).
• The provider must reimburse overdraft or NSF fees caused by early or wrong-amount debits (39-5-840(8)).
• Proceeds are not a consumer loan, and fees and tips are not a loan finance charge, under the cited Consumer Protection Code sections (39-5-860).
• Registration: $1,000 nonrefundable fee, a $30,000 surety bond, and annual renewal from May 1 to June 30 (39-5-830).

Who is licensed or registered

The state publishes an official list. On 2026-10-18, it included these apps we cover:

• EarnIn: listed as “Activehours, Inc.”
• Brigit: listed as “Bridge IT, Inc.”
• Chime SpotMe and MyPay: listed as “Chime Capital, LLC”
• Cleo: listed as “Cleo AI, Inc.”
• DailyPay: listed as “DailyPay, LLC”
• FloatMe: listed as “FloatMe, Corp.”
• Klover: listed as “Klover Holdings, Inc.”
• MoneyLion: listed as “ML Plus, LLC”
• Payactiv: listed as “Payactiv, Inc.”
• Tilt (formerly Empower): listed as “Tilt Finance, Inc.”

Lists change. Check the regulator’s current list before you rely on it.

Enforcement and official actions

• 2026-03-31 South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, guidance. Published the first annual Earned Wage Access Data Report, based on 2024 data from 13 providers. It reports that consumers paid fees or tips in 79% of transactions and that expedited delivery fees made up 91% of money collected. Official document

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