Writer: Lucy Lazarony
Editor: Adam West
Reviewer: Ashley Fricker
Key Takeaways
- Colorado alleges some EarnIn Cash Outs carried calculated APRs above 1,000%.
- EarnIn says Cash Outs are not loans, while Colorado alleges repeated use trapped some consumers in costly borrowing cycles.
- The lawsuit alleges EarnIn previously made its no-tip option difficult to find and used messages to encourage tipping.
Cash advances with alleged APRs topping 1,000% are at the center of Colorado’s lawsuit against EarnIn.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed the lawsuit, accusing EarnIn of illegal, high-cost lending, deceptive practices, and violations of Colorado’s payday lending and consumer credit laws.
Through the lawsuit filed Aug. 27, Colorado is seeking money back for affected consumers, civil penalties, and a court order stopping EarnIn’s alleged unlawful practices.
But the court has not awarded those remedies, and the state’s allegations remain unproven.
EarnIn, a financial technology company, offers consumers advances called “Cash Outs” through its website and mobile app. The company says the service can “make any day payday” by allowing consumers to access money they have already earned.
“EarnIn … acted as a third-party lender and charged illegally high rates.” — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser
But Colorado alleges that EarnIn operated as a third-party lender through its direct-to-consumer Cash Out product, which the lawsuit says violated multiple state lending and consumer protection laws.
“EarnIn was not working with companies here in providing consumers with funds but acted as a third-party lender and charged illegally high rates, used deceptive design strategies to extract some charges, and trapped consumers in repeat borrowing,” Weiser said.
EarnIn maintains that Cash Outs are earned-wage access products, not loans. EarnIn describes Cash Outs as nonrecourse. In other words, its user agreement says the company has no legal or contractual claim against consumers who do not repay the advances.
EarnIn also says it does not use collections or report unpaid Cash Outs to credit bureaus. But consumers must resolve an outstanding payment before they can receive another Cash Out.
BadCredit.org reached out to EarnIn for comment on the lawsuit but did not receive a response by press time.
Colorado Says EarnIn APRs Topped 1,000%
EarnIn requires customers to authorize automatic repayment from their bank accounts and may make additional debit attempts if the first one fails, according to the complaint.
EarnIn says consumers can receive their money in one to three business days at no cost. Those who want it faster can pay a Lightning Speed fee, which varies by transaction. EarnIn says expedited funds can generally arrive within minutes.
Colorado argues that tips and Lightning Speed fees should count as finance charges when calculating the cost of the advances. Colorado’s math puts EarnIn’s APRs at several hundred percent and, in some cases, above 1,000%. The state generally caps payday loan APRs at 36%.
The lawsuit alleges that EarnIn exceeded that limit, failed to provide required loan disclosures, and operated without a supervised lender license.
EarnIn Says Cash Outs Aren’t Loans
EarnIn disputes Colorado’s classification of Cash Outs as loans. It says Lightning Speed is optional and consumers can choose a free transfer. Tips were also described as optional when the company collected them in Colorado.
The complaint alleges that many customers got caught in a cycle of high-cost borrowing and reborrowing.
One Colorado customer allegedly took out 1,151 Cash Outs and paid $4,038.50 in Lightning Speed fees. The advances carried an average calculated APR of 1,421%.
Another Colorado customer allegedly took out 1,033 Cash Outs, paying $8,561.22 in tips and fees at an average calculated APR of 1,539%.
In just over two years, EarnIn made more than 3.1 million Cash Outs to 56,778 Colorado consumers, according to the complaint. The company advanced approximately $300 million and collected more than $16 million in tips and Lightning Speed fees between January 2023 and July 2025.
That works out to about 56 transactions for each Colorado consumer, on average, though some returned to the service far more often.
And more than 92% of those transactions came with either a tip or an expedited-transfer fee. The lawsuit says that brought the average calculated APR to nearly 388%.
The complaint says EarnIn continues offering Cash Outs in Colorado, although the company stopped collecting tips from Colorado consumers in July 2025.
Colorado Says EarnIn Made ‘No Tip’ Hard to Find
The lawsuit alleges that EarnIn’s app gave customers a push toward tipping while making the no-tip option harder to find.
Customers who did not want to tip allegedly had to tap through the app numerous times to find that option.
Along the way, messages such as “pay it forward” made it sound like their tips would help other customers, Colorado alleges. The money actually went to EarnIn, according to the complaint.
EarnIn has since stopped using some of the language and imagery cited in the lawsuit. It also stopped collecting tips from Colorado consumers in July 2025. But the attorney general alleges that the earlier designs were unfair and deceptive and violated Colorado’s consumer protection laws.
Colorado consumers who believe EarnIn treated them unfairly can contact the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
