I’ve been thinking of yesterday’s post and about what should be done about the likes of “Money Shop” and the rest (Payday UK “only” charge 1330% interest for a 30 day loan – please click on the link to check I am not making this figure up. It is unbelievable. Apparently they have 100,000 UK customers) who make such excessive interest charges.

Firstly, why not legislate against it. Usury use to be illegal for centuries. There also use to be numerous Bank of England regulated credit controls which were abolished by Thatcher?

Walking along the Roman Road, East London before Christmas I found the local “Money Shop” had a wonderful special offer for customers – “pay only £5 for a £95 loan” at only 86.7% typical APR. So that’s okay then. An absolute bargain then with inflation at 4.8%?

Today I walked past the “shop” and it had no bill boards out on the pavement but it was announcing its “half price sale” in the windows. “ Pay only £7 (usually £14) for a £93 loan with our Half Price Sale. 141.9% APR typical. The total amount payable of £100 is repaid in 30 days".