Someone who lends people money and charges them an extremely high interest rate on the loan. Usurious rates on short-term loans are not always easy to see. For example, a two-week payday loan for $100 might cost $15. That sounds like an interest rate of 15%, which is similar to credit card rates. However, a credit card rate is an annual rate. To compare the two loan options fairly, you need to recalculate the payday loan rate for a full year. In this example, the true annual rate for the payday loan turns out to be about 390% (0.15 x 26 two- week periods)