According to this article more and more people are taking out payday loans in order to help pay the bills. The loans are so called because they offer a short term loan designed to help get you through until you get paid. Whilst taking the loans out is often and easy process and the money is usually available very quickly it seems paying them back is not always so simple. The article highlights the fact that payday loans often have massive rates of interest attached to them with some charging rates out to 2,000%. According to Customer Focus employees borrowed £1.2 billion in 2009 alone. Rates of interest on the loans tend to range from 13 to 18% but some are as high 30% generating an SPR of as much as 1,000 to 2000%. This can mean the initial loan can quickly get out of control and be hard to pay back particularly on a modest income. Customer Focus has called for greater safeguards to protect customers.