The whole thing although amoral ... stinks.
The APR (annualised percentage rate) is actually a whopping 201% !! For £300 borrowed over 59 weeks at £9-00 per week.
Using :-
P(R-1) / 1-(R^(-n)) = n'thly repayments.
Where P = Amount borrowed
R = In this weekly case, 52nd root of (APR/100 + 1)
3.01 ^ (1/52) = 1.021417.. being weekly (int rate/100 + 1)
n = number of periodic repayments. = 59
R = approximately 1.021417
Thus :-
300 (1.021417-1) / 1-(1.021417^(-59)) becomes 6.3 / 0.7066 = £9.004.. per period or £9-00 per week.
I guess financially challenged people feel they have to get the money first and worry about paying for it later - desparation. This is not a nice place to be and I am sure there are as many in it through no real fault of their own as there are through negligence.
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BTW I used Excel and it's 'goal seek' utility to find the real APR. given the amount borrowed, repayment and number of periods.
The formulae..
Next, effectively asking 'Goal Seek' to change the 'APR guess' figure to produce 9 as periodic repayment amount.
The result ...
Hence APR = 2.01 x 100 ..... 201%