Illinois laws re PDL

Depends whether your loans fit the definition of a payday loan or installment loan. Payday loans, by state definition, have an APR > 36%, term < 120 days, and are secured by either a wage assignment and/or ACH authorization.

IL Payday Loan Laws are available here:
http://ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/94/094-0013.htm and
http://ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/038/03800210sections.html

In short,
1) The laws specifically apply to any lender that makes a payday loan to an Illinois consumer (so they apply to all internet loan, regardless of the state the PDL is located in).
2) The lender must be licensed in IL as a payday lender.
3) A consumer may only have at most 2 payday loans at any given time; a PDL is required to check a state-database to determine if the consumer is eligible to receive another payday loan.
4) Rollovers are prohibited.
5) The maximum finance charge is $15.50 per $100 borrowed.

There are other disclosures and requirements of PDLs. But in general, if it doesn't follow the above criteria, then it is an illegal loan. Any violation of the PDL laws "constitutes a violation of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act."

i currently have 3 storefront installment loans, and 1 loan from USA Webcash/Genesis Financial. All are in Illinois. I have paid $556 dollars on a $500 loan, within the last three months. I still owe about $600 on the loan. Can they charge me that much interest within that time frame?

Well, it gets tricky. After IL PDL laws were enacted in 2005, the PDL industry coined a new product that they call "installment loans". Basically to get subvert the PDL laws, the PDL lenders stretch the term out more than 120 days and have you make monthly payments (versus a demand-type note where the entire balance is due in 14 days). The IDFI (Illinois Dept of Financial Instutitions) quickly became aware of the new practice and implemented "administrative rules" which would have considered such "installment" loans to be PDLs "in disguise" and forced PDL stores to comply with the new laws. But the PDL lobby filed a lawsuit against the state, a judge sided with the PDLs and deemed the DFI rules to be unconstitutional, and thus PDL stores have free reign to market and engage in their "installment" loans without breaking any PDL laws. (FYI there have and are efforts to close that loop-hole with Senate Bill 655, largely sponsored by Citizen Action Illinois. The bill was held up in committee last session, but will probably pass in the 2010 session.

Now, to answer your question........ if your loan was truly a PDL by definition, then that amount of interest you've paid is not legal. However, I fear that you probably signed an installment loan, which probably makes that interest legal. Look at your contract, and if your payment schedule stretches out longer than 4 months, than it is considered an "installment" loan and not a true PDL.