Thirty-day loan apps sell speed: a few taps, money in minutes, repay on payday. The price is usually quoted per day, which sounds tiny. The trouble starts when payday comes and repaying the full amount would leave you short for the month, so you borrow again. This page does the arithmetic most listings skip: what one 30-day loan costs, what it costs when you roll it over, how to turn a per-day rate into an annual one, and what RBI rules say about charges and penalties. For the full picture of salary advances, see our salary advance hub.
How per-day pricing works
A 30-day loan is usually a bullet loan: you receive the money (minus any processing fee and GST), and you repay the principal plus interest in one go at the end. Interest is often quoted per day. Third-party comparison listings we reviewed in October 2026 show some short-term apps quoting from about 0.1% to 1% a day. Here is what those rates mean on ₹30,000.
| Rate per day | For 30 days | Simple rate for a year | Interest on ₹30,000 for 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1% | 3% | 36.5% | ₹900 |
| 0.2% | 6% | 73% | ₹1,800 |
| 0.5% | 15% | 182.5% | ₹4,500 |
| 1% | 30% | 365% | ₹9,000 |
Interest only, before processing fees and GST. Simple annualisation (rate × 365). These are example rates for arithmetic, not any lender’s quote.
A rate per day is not a “small” rate. Even 0.1% a day is 36.5% a year before fees, and the fee matters more on a short loan, because it is charged on every new loan however short.
One 30-day loan, costed fully
Take an illustrative ₹30,000 loan for 30 days at 0.20% a day, with a processing fee of 3% plus 18% GST deducted upfront.
₹2,862 on ₹28,938 is about 9.9% for one month. Annualised simply, that is roughly 120% a year. This is why the KFS shows the Annual Percentage Rate (APR): it puts interest and charges into one annual number you can compare across lenders and tenures.
The rollover: the same loan three times
Now suppose the gap was really three months long. You repay ₹31,800 on payday, find the month short, and take a fresh ₹30,000 loan. Then again the next month. Each new loan brings a new fee and another month’s interest. Compare that with borrowing ₹30,000 once over three months as an EMI loan at an illustrative 24% a year on a reducing balance, with the same 3% fee plus GST.
Total interest and fees on ₹30,000: re-borrowing vs one EMI loan
Illustrative. 30-day loan: 0.20% a day for 30 days (₹1,800) plus a 3% fee and 18% GST (₹1,062) on every cycle. EMI loan: 3 months at 24% a year, reducing balance, EMI about ₹10,403, interest about ₹1,208, plus one ₹1,062 fee. Not any lender’s quote.
After three cycles you have paid ₹8,586 in interest and fees, and on the last payday you still have to find the full ₹30,000. The EMI loan costs about ₹2,270 in total and is fully repaid in three instalments of about ₹10,403. The gap between ₹8,586 and ₹2,270 is not mainly about the rate. It comes from the structure: a one-month loan taken three times, with three fees, against one loan whose balance falls every month.
The fee is charged every time you borrow, not once for the debt you carry.
Add a second or third app to cover what the first one did not, and the costs compound in a different way: more fees, more due dates, more enquiries on your credit report. Our page on juggling several loan apps shows how that stack forms. To run your own numbers, use the loan-app cost calculator.
Charges that show up on every cycle
- Processing fee plus GST, usually deducted from what you receive, so you get less than you borrow but pay interest on the full amount.
- A fresh month of interest on the full amount each time you re-borrow, even though your debt has not grown. Check the prepayment terms too.
- Penal charges if you pay late. These must be in the KFS.
- Third-party charges the lender collects on someone else’s behalf, which form part of the APR under RBI’s KFS rules.
If a charge is not in your KFS, the lender cannot levy it without your explicit consent. That is a useful test: anything that turns up on your repayment screen and was not in the KFS is worth questioning with the lender’s grievance officer.
What RBI rules change for you
Three sets of RBI rules matter most for short salary loans from banks and NBFCs:
Key Fact Statement with APR
RBI’s KFS circular of 15 April 2024 applies to retail loans sanctioned on or after 1 October 2024. The KFS must show the APR, which includes interest and all other charges, before you sign. Charges not in the KFS cannot be levied without your explicit consent.
Penal charges, not penal interest
Since 1 January 2024, under RBI’s August 2023 circular, lenders levy late-payment “penal charges” rather than adding penal interest to your rate, and penal charges cannot be capitalised. In plain words, no interest should be charged on a penalty.
Digital lending protections
RBI’s Digital Lending Directions of 8 May 2025 require the money to go straight into your bank account and repayments straight to the lender, a cooling-off period of at least one day in which you can exit by repaying principal and proportionate APR, no automatic credit-limit increase without your request, and recovery agent details sent to you before contact. Lenders report their apps to RBI, which publishes a directory you can check: see how to check a loan app in RBI’s directory.
These rules make costs visible. They do not cap the price. A fully compliant 30-day loan can still be expensive if you roll it over, which is why reading the APR and matching the tenure both matter.
Turn any 30-day offer into an annual cost
If you only have the per-day rate and the fee, you can estimate the yearly cost in three steps:
This rough figure ignores compounding, so the real APR in the KFS can be higher. Use it as a sanity check, and always compare offers on the KFS APR. If you want to see how flat and reducing-balance rates differ for EMI loans, our flat vs reducing balance guide explains it.
Ways out if you are already rolling over
Stop the next cycle first
Do not open a new app loan to repay an old one. Every new loan adds a fee and an enquiry.
Size the real gap
Add up what you owe across all apps and divide it by your monthly surplus. If that is more than one month, you need a longer tenure, not another 30-day loan. Our guide to a salary advance for two or three months shows how.
Move to one EMI
A personal loan of 3 to 36 months turns several bullet repayments into one instalment. If you are carrying several app loans, SmartSwitch consolidates them into one Omozing loan, credited to your own account, which you use to close each app loan.
Complain if the rules are broken
Write to the lender’s grievance officer. If the complaint is not resolved within 30 days, you can escalate to the RBI Ombudsman. For harassment or fraud, call 1930 or report at cybercrime.gov.in.
Omozing lends to salaried people with a take-home of ₹40,000 or more and a credit score from 600, up to ₹25 lakh over 3 to 36 months, with rates from 11% a year and a 3% to 7% processing fee plus GST. The exact cost is in the KFS before you sign. See Omozing personal loans, or read why payday loans cost so much in the first place.
See what your app loans are costing you
Enter your loans in our calculator to see the monthly cost of rolling over, and what one EMI could look like instead.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a 30-day salary loan really cost?
It depends on the per-day rate and the fee. At an illustrative 0.20% a day with a 3% fee plus GST, ₹30,000 for 30 days costs ₹2,862, which is roughly 120% a year as a simple annual rate on the money received. Your KFS shows the exact APR.
Are there hidden charges in 30-day loans?
Under RBI’s KFS rules, every charge must be disclosed in the Key Fact Statement, and charges not in it cannot be levied without your explicit consent. Common charges are the processing fee, GST, and penal charges for late payment.
What happens if I roll over a 30-day loan?
Each new loan usually brings a new processing fee and another month’s interest, while the amount you owe stays the same. In our illustrative example, three cycles on ₹30,000 cost ₹8,586 against about ₹2,270 for a 3-month EMI loan.
Can a lender charge interest on late-payment penalties?
No. Since 1 January 2024, RBI requires lenders to levy penal charges rather than penal interest, and penal charges cannot be capitalised, so no further interest is charged on them.
Can I cancel a loan app loan after taking it?
Under RBI’s digital lending rules there is a cooling-off period of at least one day, set by the lender, during which you can exit by repaying the principal and the proportionate APR. A disclosed one-time processing fee may be retained.
Is a 3-month EMI loan always cheaper than a 30-day loan?
Not always for a genuine one-off gap that you can repay fully from your next salary. But if you would need to re-borrow, a loan with a tenure that matches the gap is usually much cheaper because you pay one fee and the balance falls each month.
Omozing is the digital lending brand of Aparampaar Finance Private Limited, an RBI-registered non-deposit-taking NBFC. All rates on this page are examples for arithmetic, not quotes; your actual rate, fees and APR are in your Key Fact Statement. See our regulatory disclosures and grievance redressal process.