I think you are cherry picking the calculator to make a point. If you took out a 5 year car loan and paid it back in 6 months you'll get a crazy interest rate also. Their loans are designed to be between 12-24 and revolving lines for freestyle (bulk of loans from memory?), on average loan period was something in the middle of that range. Of course if you take their highest interest rate for a medium term loan and add in the establishment fee and pay it back 3months, you'll arrive at a high rate but that isn't the business case or customer application for MME, nor is that what they are actually earning in their account.
A payday lender is one that is designed to be used for a short period, legally can't be less than16 days nor longer than 12 months and can't be recurring, the cap on such loans are a 20% establishment fee and 4% per month interest rate and their interest is charged on the original balance not the amortised loan balance, so the actual interest rate is much much higher (plus as someone else mentioned the fees on top).
Don't get me wrong, MME isn't cheap credit but neither is any form of medium term unsecured credit including credit cards. They publish their rates and it's a credit based decision (which is fair) with freestyle ranging between 17-26% depending on your credit profile and only on the outstanding balance. That is cheaper than most credit cards and nothing like a payday loan.
MME Price at posting:
$1.28 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
