The number of cash advances you can get depends on the type: credit card cash advances are limited by your card’s cash advance sublimit and ATM withdrawal caps, while payday loans are restricted by state law, with many states capping you at one or two at a time. There’s no single universal number, so the real answer depends on which product you’re using and where you live.
Credit Card Cash Advance Limits
Every credit card with cash advance access has a sublimit, which is a portion of your total credit line reserved for cash withdrawals. This is typically capped at a percentage of your overall credit limit. If your credit limit is $15,000 and the card caps cash advances at 30%, you can withdraw up to $4,500 total in cash advances. That cap applies to your running balance, not per transaction, so once you’ve hit it you can’t take another advance until you pay some of it down.
On top of the sublimit, you’ll face per-transaction and daily withdrawal limits. ATMs themselves usually cap single withdrawals at $200 to $1,000 depending on the machine and your bank. Your card issuer may impose its own daily limit as well. So even if you have $4,500 available, you might only be able to pull $500 or $1,000 in a single day. Going to a bank teller instead of an ATM sometimes lets you access a larger amount in one visit.
In theory, you could take multiple cash advances across several credit cards if each one offers the feature. Nothing prevents you from using the cash advance on Card A today and Card B tomorrow. But each advance eats into that card’s available credit, and the costs add up fast. Most issuers charge a cash advance fee of 3% to 5% per transaction (with a minimum of $5 to $10), plus an interest rate that’s often 25% to 30% APR with no grace period. Interest starts accruing the moment the cash hits your hands.
How Payday Loan Limits Work
Payday loans, sometimes called cash advances from storefront or online lenders, are regulated at the state level. The number you can have at one time varies dramatically depending on where you live. Roughly a dozen states prohibit payday lending entirely. Among states that allow it, limits generally fall into a few categories.
Many states cap you at one or two loans outstanding at a time. Some allow up to three simultaneously but limit the combined dollar amount, often to $500 or $700. A handful of states set no limit on the number of loans but cap the total dollar amount you can owe across all lenders. And a few states have no cap at all on how many you can hold.
Most states that allow payday loans also cap the maximum amount per loan, typically between $300 and $1,000. Some tie the cap to your income, limiting total payday debt to 25% of your monthly gross pay. Many states also use statewide databases that lenders must check before issuing a new loan, which makes it harder to borrow from multiple lenders simultaneously even if the law technically allows more than one.
Cooling-off periods add another layer. Some states require you to wait 24 hours or longer between paying off one payday loan and taking out another, specifically to prevent the cycle of rolling one loan into the next.
What Repeated Cash Advances Cost You
The fact that you can take multiple cash advances doesn’t mean the cost stays flat. Each one compounds the financial damage in ways that aren’t always obvious upfront.
For credit card cash advances, the biggest hidden cost is the immediate impact on your credit utilization ratio, which is how much of your available credit you’re currently using. Credit scoring models favor utilization below 30%. If you owe $500 on a card with a $1,500 limit, your utilization is about 33%. Take a $300 cash advance on that same card and your balance jumps to $800, pushing utilization above 53%. That alone can drag your credit score down, and the effect multiplies if you’re taking advances on several cards.
Because cash advances carry no grace period, interest piles up from day one. If you take three or four advances over the course of a month without paying them off, you’re paying interest on all of them simultaneously at the card’s highest rate. Payments you make typically get applied to lower-rate balances (like regular purchases) first, so the cash advance balance can linger and compound for months.
For payday loans, the math is even harsher. Fees of $10 to $30 per $100 borrowed translate to annual percentage rates of 300% to 700%. Taking two or three payday loans at once means you’re paying those fees on each one, and if you can’t repay them all by your next paycheck, you may end up rolling them over and paying another round of fees.
Practical Limits Beyond the Rules
Even when there’s no hard legal or policy cap on the number of cash advances you can take, practical limits kick in. Your available credit shrinks with each advance, and lenders can reduce your credit limit or freeze cash advance access if they see a pattern of heavy use. Some credit card issuers flag accounts with frequent cash advances as higher risk, which can lead to a lower credit limit or even account closure at renewal time.
Payday lenders may also decline your application if their database check shows you already have significant outstanding debt, even in states without a strict numerical cap. And because each advance generates fees, interest, or both, the real ceiling for most people isn’t a policy number. It’s the point where the repayment obligations become unmanageable.
If you’re trying to figure out exactly how many cash advances your specific credit card allows, call the number on the back of the card and ask for your cash advance limit and daily ATM withdrawal cap. For payday loans, your state’s financial regulator publishes the rules that licensed lenders must follow, including maximum loan amounts and how many you can hold at once.