Illustration: michaelmucci.com In the age of instant gratification, it's not surprising Nimble - who used to call themselves the "Cash Doctors" - touted their services "as the future of money, but you can have it right now". Immediacy, of course, doesn't come cheap. However, the exorbitant interest charged on these type of loans is never advertised as an annual percentage rate - because the figure would scare the bejesus out of any half-sentient borrower. As Choice points out, the "annual comparison rate for a two-week $250 pay day loan" from Cash Train is "742 per cent". Nimble charges the maximum allowed by law - a 20 per cent establishment fee plus four per cent interest per month, which translates to 92 per cent annually if compounded monthly. Nimble also spank you $35 for missed repayments and $7 per day until you've cleared the overdue debt. The old name for this game is loan sharking, except Nimble don't break your legs, they'll just bust your bank account if you get into trouble with the vig.

The other name for this industry is payday lending, which if you've ever visited a low-income neighbourhood in the USA, you'll know is an industry that feasts on the poor via store front lenders where tellers sit behind metal grills doling out grubby notes to the desperate. In an interesting display of cognitive dissonance, Nimble's chief executive, Sami Malia, said: "I shiver a little bit when I hear people talk about payday lending, because it has quite a negative stigma attached to it." A 26-year-old woman I spoke to about her hamster-wheel of debt said Nimble was "her gateway" to "the drug" of short-term loans because the company is so visible with its ad campaigns and makes the transaction simple. She's fallen into the familiar trap of rolling over her debts month to month, financing payments with new loans from competing online lenders. "I've got six of them at the moment. I'm moving back in with my parents to get it under control," she said. Cash Converters, Loan Ranger and PayDay 24/7 all offer similar services to Nimble at similarly extortionate fees and I'll bet you a lazy $50 - interest free - there's someone you know in their twenties reeling under their Christmas excesses financed by these dumb little loans.

It's a hateful fact of life in this country that if you're poor, you're fair game for the rich to further bloat themselves on your blood. Pokies, predatory lenders, fast food franchises, "interest free" loans from retailers all target the people with the least to give, offering the false promise that "stuff" outside them will make them feel better about what's going on inside. There's no rabbit-proof fence for the poor.