The Mississippi Credit Availability Act governs the middle ground between a payday loan and a bank loan: instalment-style credit larger than a $500 check but far more expensive than anything a credit union would offer. It also contains one of the more remarkable sentences in Mississippi consumer law.
Quick answer: The Credit Availability Act, Miss. Code Ann. 75-67-601 and following, lets a licensee charge a monthly handling fee of up to 25% of the outstanding principal balance, and the statute expressly provides that this fee is not deemed interest for any purpose of law. The Act was reenacted in 2025 and remains in force.
What the Act created
Mississippi passed the Credit Availability Act to authorise a product sitting above the Check Cashers Act‘s $500 ceiling: a revolving-style credit availability account, repaid in instalments, from a separately licensed lender supervised by the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance.
It is worth being precise about where it fits, because the three Mississippi products are easy to confuse:
- Check Cashers Act — payday, check face capped at $500 including fee, 30 days maximum, no rollovers.
- Title Pledge Act — borrowing against a vehicle title, up to 25% per month.
- Credit Availability Act — larger instalment credit, monthly handling fee up to 25% of the outstanding balance.
Each requires its own licence. A business licensed for one is not automatically permitted to offer another.
The handling fee, and the sentence that matters
A licensee may charge a monthly handling fee for services, expenses and costs of up to 25% of the outstanding principal balance per month.
Then comes the provision worth reading twice: the statute states that the handling fee shall not be deemed interest for any purpose of law.
That is not a technicality. It means the charge sits outside Mississippi’s general usury framework entirely — it is not interest that happens to be permitted at a high rate, it is a fee the legislature has defined as something other than interest. Anyone comparing this product to a bank loan by looking for an interest rate will not find a meaningful one.
What you should look for instead is the total of payments: what leaves your account, over how many months, in dollars. That figure is comparable against anything.
What it costs in practice
Twenty-five per cent of the outstanding balance, charged monthly, is a large number and it compounds against a balance that only falls as you repay.
On a $1,000 balance, a full monthly handling fee is $250 in the first month alone. Even as the balance falls, a loan carried for several months accumulates fees that can approach or exceed the amount borrowed. That is the arithmetic to run before signing, and the lender is required to give you the figures in writing.
The established maximum outstanding principal balance on a credit availability account has been $2,500. Bills in the 2025 session proposed raising that ceiling, so confirm the current figure with the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance rather than relying on any published summary — including this one.
Is the Act still in force?
Yes, and this is a point where published sources will mislead you.
The Credit Availability Act carries a repealer — a built-in expiry date that the Legislature has repeatedly extended. Earlier legislation set it to expire on 1 July 2022, then 2021’s HB1075 pushed it to 2026. Many online versions of the Mississippi Code still show [Repealed effective 7/1/2026] against these sections as a result.
That annotation is stale. 2025 legislation (HB1427) reenacted sections 75-67-601 through 75-67-637 and extended the repealer again. The Act is operative.
The practical lesson is broader than this statute: a repealer date printed in a code database is only as current as the database. For anything you are about to rely on, check DBCF.
How it compares for a Jackson borrower
| Payday | Credit availability | Credit-union PAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amount | Check capped at $500 | Larger, up to the statutory ceiling | Typically $200 to $2,000 |
| Charge | $20 to $21.95 per $100 | Up to 25% of balance monthly | 28% interest cap |
| Term | 30 days maximum | Months | 1 to 6 months |
| Reports to credit bureaus | Usually no | Varies | Usually yes |
The credit availability product solves a real problem — a payday loan cannot stretch past $500 or past 30 days — but it solves it expensively. If the need is genuinely for a larger amount over several months, that is precisely the shape a credit union lends in, and it is worth a day’s delay to ask.
Why a repealer exists at all
It is unusual for a consumer-credit statute to carry an expiry date, and the reason tells you something useful about the product.
A repealer forces the Legislature to revisit the Act periodically rather than letting it sit permanently on the books. In practice each review has ended in an extension — 2018 legislation set 2022, 2021’s HB1075 moved it to 2026, and 2025’s HB1427 reenacted the sections and extended it again. But the mechanism means the terms of this product are genuinely open to change in a way that, say, the Check Cashers Act is not.
For a borrower the practical implication is narrow but real: figures you read about credit availability accounts age faster than most, and a summary written two sessions ago may describe a ceiling or a fee structure that has since moved. Check the current position with DBCF before you rely on any number, including the ones here.
Before you sign one in Jackson
- Confirm the licence type with DBCF. A credit availability licence is distinct from a check casher licence.
- Ask for the total of payments in dollars, not the rate — the handling fee is not expressed as interest, so a rate comparison will mislead you.
- Ask what happens if you repay early, and get the figure in writing.
- Ask about card processing fees, which licensees may charge from 1 July 2026 and which sit outside the statutory caps.
- Price a credit union first. A Payday Alternative Loan is capped at 28% interest and generally reports to the bureaus, which builds the file that makes the next loan cheaper.
Frequently asked questions
A statute authorising instalment-style credit availability accounts from separately licensed lenders, sitting above the $500 ceiling that applies to payday loans under the Check Cashers Act.
A monthly handling fee of up to 25% of the outstanding principal balance. The statute expressly provides that this fee is not deemed interest for any purpose of law.
No. Published code databases still show a stale ‘[Repealed effective 7/1/2026]’ annotation, but 2025 legislation reenacted sections 75-67-601 through 75-67-637 and extended the repealer. The Act is in force.
The established maximum outstanding principal balance has been $2,500. Legislation in 2025 proposed raising it, so confirm the current figure with the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance before relying on it.
Not necessarily. It allows a larger amount over a longer term, but a 25% monthly handling fee accumulates quickly. Compare the total of payments in dollars against a credit-union loan before deciding.
This article is educational and is not financial or legal advice. Before you borrow, confirm the lender is licensed with the Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance (DBCF), and read the fee disclosure in full.