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MoneyLion Instacash logo

MoneyLion Instacash

4.4Growing your limitFacts verified September 11, 2026
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MoneyLion Instacash is a cash advance inside the MoneyLion app. You can get up to $500. There is no interest and no credit check. Send your direct deposit to a MoneyLion Spend account, and your limit can grow to $1,000. Standard delivery is free. Instant delivery costs $0.49 to $8.99, but MoneyLion only lists fees up to $100.

Get MoneyLion

On MoneyLion's site

$500

Max advance

$0/mo

Subscription

None

Credit check

$0.49 to $8.99

Instant fee

The details

Max advance
Up to $500
Limit resets
Rolling
Mandatory fees
None
Premium plan (optional)
$19.99/mo (Credit Builder Plus)
Interest
None
Credit check
None
Direct deposit required?
Yes
Bank-link required
Yes
Instant transfer
Within minutes (optional Turbo delivery)
Instant transfer fee
$0.49 to $8.99, by amount and destination
Free transfer
1 to 5 business days
Tips
Requested (optional)
Eligibility
Link a checking account open at least 2 months, with a history of income deposits, and verify your identity and account ownership. Base limit is up to $500. Moving your direct deposits into a MoneyLion Spend account can raise it to $1,000, depending on expected income; a paid membership can raise it to $700. MoneyLion does not publish whether Instacash repayment is reported to the credit bureaus.

What it really costs

Cheapest path: 0% APR equivalent

Borrow $250, choose free delivery (1 to 5 business days), repay on your next payday. MoneyLion Instacash charges no interest and no required fees, so waiting costs you nothing.

Most expensive path: ≈94% APR equivalent

Borrow $250 with instant delivery for a fee of up to $8.99, repaid in 14 days. That works out to an annualized cost of roughly 94%, payday-loan territory for saving a couple of days. MoneyLion Instacash does not publish a fee for every advance amount, so treat this as the top of the range.

APR equivalents are Firstcard's illustrative math: fee ÷ advance × 365 ÷ 14 days until repayment, not a rate MoneyLion Instacash charges. Optional tips are excluded.

Pros & cons

Pros

  • Instant delivery starts at 49 cents with a MoneyLion Spend account.
  • You never have to pay a monthly fee to use Instacash.
  • Move your direct deposit in, and your limit can climb toward $1,000.

Cons

  • MoneyLion offers up to $1,000 but only lists fees up to $100. The rest is a guess.
  • MoneyLion asks for a tip on top of the Turbo fee.
  • Reaching $1,000 needs MoneyLion's own Spend account, and the $700 tier's price stays secret.

Compare MoneyLion Instacash to other cash advance apps

After this app, similar apps from the same list are picked automatically: apps from Firstcard partners first, then the rest, each group by Firstcard editors' rating. That order may reflect partner compensation, as how we rate explains. It never changes a rating. The full list shows them all.

A warning from Firstcard

  • Borrow with a plan. Take an advance only for a specific, necessary expense, and know exactly which paycheck repays it before you tap the button.
  • Don't stack apps. Using more than two cash advance apps at once is how the debt spiral starts. We don't recommend it, ever.
  • Avoid instant fees. Express delivery is extremely expensive for the days it saves, see the APR math above. If a free delivery option exists, use it.

Relying on an advance every paycheck? Learn how these apps really work →

Firstcard member reviews

What real members say about MoneyLion Instacash

Real reviews from verified Firstcard members who use these apps with their own money. Interview quotes are edited from spoken to written language for clarity, never for meaning. First name, age, and state only.

5.0

1 verified member interview

First advance

$60

1 of 1 members shared theirs

Max advance reached

$80

MoneyLion Instacash advertises up to $500

Speed of money delivery
5.01 rated
Cost and fees
3.01 rated
Customer support
5.01 rated

Tyler C.

Kentucky · Current user · interviewed Sep 3, 2026

✓ Verified member

“Instant money, tiny limits”

First advance

$60

Max advance

$80

“They deliver it instantly, if not within 30 seconds. But even with $1,000 to $2,000 a month in direct deposit, the advance amount is really low, and they don't up it often.”

These ratings and opinions are Tyler’s own. Firstcard paid Tyler for the interview, and no partner saw or edited it. The figures come from what was said in the interview rather than from the provider, so they may differ from today’s terms or from the offer you are given. Firstcard verifies each product’s fees and limits separately, in the details section above.

About the author

Founder & CEO, Chief Editor

Kenji is the Founder and CEO of Firstcard. He built and sold iTank, Japan's largest internship platform, and has made about 40 angel investments, including Substack. He started Firstcard at UC Berkeley Haas after he was rejected for his first U.S. credit card. Full profile and latest articles →

  • Stanford University
  • UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
  • Firstcard

How Firstcard works

Firstcard exists to make finance simple and accessible, so anyone can choose the right financial product with confidence. That means showing every fee and every catch upfront, and holding ourselves to the same standard. Here is how Firstcard works, and how we make money.

How we rate. Our editors' rating for a cash advance app weighs what it truly costs to use (the instant fee plus any required subscription, not the advertised “no interest”), how much you can actually get, how fast the free option delivers, what you need to qualify, and how repayment works. Ratings run 1 to 5 in tenths and compare products only within their own category, so a 4.5-star cash advance app is not “better” than a 4.0-star credit builder: they do different jobs. Treat the rating as one input, not the decision. See how we rate financial products.

How we make money. Firstcard may earn a commission when you click a link on this page, get approved, or open an account. That is what keeps our comparisons free to use. See how we make money and our current partners.

Ratings versus placement. Star ratings, member reviews, and our cost math are never influenced by money, and no partner sees a review before it publishes. Where a product appears is a separate question: featured spots and default ordering can reflect partner compensation and what members click and choose. That is why the rating and the real numbers travel with every product, wherever it sits. See our Advertiser Disclosure and Editorial Guidelines.

Terms change, so check before you apply. These terms come from the providers, not from us, so we cannot guarantee they are current or complete, and anything a member reports describes their own account rather than the offer you will be given. Always confirm the fees and terms on the provider's own site before you apply. If you spot something wrong here, email support@firstcard.app and we will fix it.