Being poor is expensive.

Take, for example, one service targeted at the down-and-out: payday lending. Drive past any dusty suburban strip mall and neon lights flicker the promise of a “Cash Advance Here.” Payday lenders provide very small and very short-term loans (often just a couple hundred dollars for a week or so, until the next paycheck arrives). They’re not for everyone, but for families living from one paycheck to the next, these loans are sometimes the only way to keep the lights on.

Payday loans have long been vilified by politicians and the media because of their exorbitant fees. A two-week loan for $300 can easily carry $50 in fees and interest. That’s a compounded annual interest rate of 5,403 percent. And because the borrowers can be desperate for cash, payday lending has become nearly synonymous with words like “usury” and “predation.”

A London-based company, Wonga, wants to change that image.

[MORE AFTER THE JUMP]