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That sounds a little like the logic behind payday lending. Get some money now but pay a huge price later. I am sure plenty of people are in that position but it

• olliej 8y ago
  Payday lenders can charge excessive interest rates, or “fees” (worded however necessary to make it “legal”) because they know the people getting them have no choice. If you need your car to get to your job, then if it needs immediate repairs you have no choice but to get the money for a mechanic immediately. If you’re on a low or minimum wage there is not any kind of safety buffer for you, and banks won’t lend to you (collectively low income people are higher risk of default so it’s easiest for banks to just say no than do it case by case). The problem is that once you have needed a payday loan once, you’re trapped: if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then once they take their cut you don’t have enough money to pay the rent, so you need a loan ... And so from a single loan they now have a permanent source of income, and it’s a higher interest rate than any other (10-20% per week is “reasonable”) In principle I don’t have a problem with the concept of a payday loan (it’s essentially a secured credit), but something about that industry drives them to fee gouge and ruin people’s lives.