money at high rates of interest on the security of a postdated check, are often described as loan sharks by their critics due to high interest rates that trap debtors, stopping short of illegal lending and violent collection practices. Today's payday loan is a close cousin of the early 20th century salary loan, the product to which the "shark" epithet was originally applied, but they are now legalised in some states. A 2001 comparison of short-term lending rates charged by the Chicago Outfit organized crime syndicate and payday lenders in California revealed that, depending on when a payday loan was paid back by a borrower (generally 1–14 days), the interest rate charged for a payday loan could be considerably higher than the interest rate of a similar loan made by the organized crime syndicate. However the violent collection practices of the organized crime can ensure a lower rate of unpaid loans. The absence of taxes further reduces the cost of lending in this case. See also Debt bondage Debt of developing countries Mortgage discrimination Organized crime Overdraft protection loans Payday loan Poverty industry Refund anticipation loan Securitization Settlement (finance) Title loan Usury Bibliography References Banking Extortion Organized crime activity Loans Informal finance Debt bondage es:Usura