I'm always paying, never make it, but you can't look back

[venta]

So, sums. I can, broadly speaking, do sums. I have a degree in maths.

However, interest rate calculations have always baffled me. Sure, if you ask me to calculate 3 months compound interest at a monthly rate of x% I know what to do. However, when it comes to real examples of mortgages and credit cards, I can't work out what the sum I need to do is. I'm still slightly baffled about the interest charged me when I was a day late paying my credit card off in full in March.

Today, the BBC carried a story about a loanshark. It includes the following statement about someone who borrowed £1000:

"...to pay £49 a week over 60 weeks, making the total amount he had to
repay £2,940 at 917% APR."

Now, if we approximate 60 weeks to a year, then surely that's an annual interest rate of no more than 294%. The quoted APR isn't even in vaguely the right ballpark.

So... have I completely failed to understand APR ? (Wikipedia's page on the subject didn't really help with the definition.) Or is the BBC publishing unmitigated wank in the name of investigative journalism ?

Edit It turns out I'd failed to understand APR, and the BBC is cleared in this instance.

Comments

[chrisvenus]

apparently my old phone number (that is still phone number of friends) would do the trick as well as any:

chris@the:~$ factor 1865246869
1865246869: 5153 361973

and also 2468 69 is a really memorable nbumber (for me at least).

I'm also faintly impressed that if you internationalise it you get a pretty impressive 8 digit prime as one of the factors:

chris@the:~$ factor 441865246869
441865246869: 3 3 977 50251933


Man... this is so geeky, isn't it?

[venta.livejournal.com]

and also 2468 69 is a really memorable nbumber (for me at least).

Given that it's probably seven years or so since I last rang you on it, and I can still remember it, I think it's quite memorable :)

[fluffymark]

My internationalised home phone number has a 12 digit prime as one of the factors. The only other factor is 2. :)