What the Old Law Used to Say
Since 2009, South Carolina regulated payday lending under the Deferred Presentment Services Act (S.C. Code Ann. § 34-39-110 et seq.), which capped loans at $550, limited borrowers to one loan at a time, and required lenders to check a statewide online database before issuing a new loan.
The 2026 Repeal
That entire framework is gone: as of December 31, 2025, every deferred-presentment license in South Carolina was revoked, and effective January 1, 2026, Chapter 39 of Title 34 — the law itself — was repealed along with all of its implementing regulations. There's no longer a "deferred presentment" payday-loan license category in the state at all.
What Replaced It
Existing licensees were given a path to transition, at no cost, from a deferred-presentment license into a "supervised lender" license under the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System — a different regulatory category that isn't bound by the old $550 cap or the mandatory database check. That means the specific consumer protections tied to the repealed law no longer automatically apply to short-term lenders now operating under the new supervised-lender framework.
| Factor | South Carolina Rule |
|---|---|
| Deferred Presentment Services Act | Repealed January 1, 2026 |
| Old $550 cap / database rule | No longer in effect |
| Former licensees | May now operate as supervised lenders |
| Current framework | Supervised lender licensing, different rules |
Given how recent this change is, comparing offers from multiple licensed lenders — and confirming their current license type — matters more than usual in South Carolina right now.
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