Whether "fiendish" is the right word for it or not, I think there is an important distinction to be made between the use of such tactics by retailers vs. credit

Whether "fiendish" is the right word for it or not, I think there is an important distinction to be made between the use of such tactics by retailers vs. creditors. While a store is limited in it's ability to extract money (i.e. time, labor) from a person by the contents of their wallet, a lender is only limited by the length of a person's lifespan.