History Main / LoanShark

->''"I needed money for some new chainmail so that I could survive the run through Blackfire Pass, so I took a loan from Bruno Ballcrusher back in Marienburg. Orcs massacred the caravan and now I'm impotent and live in a cell with a pedophile, a serial rapist and an elf."''

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* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}''. During the third mission you are given the option of taking an energy loan from Arona Daal, owner of the local HonestJohnsDealership. Given his other business practices most players would probably trust him with a loan as far as they could throw him, but his interest rates are actually rather sensible (you have to pay him back 110% of the loan sum at a later point in the mission and you'll be quits; you lose if you can't pay though). Of course, given you probably will be spending most of that loan in his store ''anyway''...
* One ''VideoGame/{{Oolite}}'' [[GameMod OXP]] introduces the Brotherhood of the Black Monks, a body that combines this trope with ChurchMilitant (since only religious bodies can lend on credit). They give out generous loans with exorbitant interest, then send out attack vessels after you once you default.
* The Federation of ''VideoGame/GratuitousSpaceBattles'' is an alliance of {{Mega Corp}}s, and all the other factions owe them money. At least, that's their part in the overall ExcusePlot of the game.
* The driving force behind the plot of ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' is Vito's father dying while his son was at war and leaving his family $2000 in debt to a loan shark, leading to Vito returning to his life of crime to try and pay it off. [[FromBadToWorse You later end up]] [[spoiler: ''$50,000'' in debt [[HistoryRepeats to the same loan shark]] after a botched attempt to get involved in the drug trade on the side.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Contrast}}'', Johnny is in debt to a loan shark, whose goons break his finger to send the message that his plan to pay them back better succeed.
* Roland Ho of ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs2012'' is a [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Sun On Yee]] loan shark whom Wei temporarily works for. While he acts rather aloof and grumpy to Wei and doesn't show much compassion to his debtors, he comes off as just an old, jaded Triad, hardened by years of dealing with deadbeats and holdouts. [[spoiler:He reveals what he ''[[EvilDebtCollector really]]'' is in his final mission. After one of his repeat debtors is cornered and, unable to repay Roland, commits suicide, [[KickTheDog Roland orders Wei to shake down the man's newly-widowed wife for his life insurance payout]]. Wei is so disgusted by this that he cuts ties with Roland then and there.]]
* ''Bidiots'', from ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack 2'', has the honestly-named Predatory Loans company. If you're low on cash for buying art, they'll give you $1000 between rounds, but you'll have to pay back $1500 per loan at the end of the game (yep, that's a ''50%'' interest rate). And most of their jingles are about [[OurSloganIsTerrible what a bad idea it is to borrow money from them]], with such examples as "Predatory Loans: We really hope you don't ReadTheFinePrint".
-->'''Jingle Singer:''' ''Pred-a-tor-y Loans! If you're talking to us, something's probably gone wrong!''

* ''Big Bang Age'' requires that you use [[{{Phlebotinum}} B-stones]] to pay your allies and finance attacks on enemy territory. In the District Chapter, Zanma Gou gives you some B-stones every few turns. At the start of the National Chapter, he reveals where he was getting them from - the Yakuza, via their front "BS Finance Services". Until you finish paying off the loan, they take a percentage of your income for "interest". And every time you pay them, it uses up that turn's event trigger.
* In ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}: Call of Pripyat'', the Bandit leader in the Jupiter area, Jack, runs a loan business by pushing interests into his clients. One of his, Vano, is unable to pay off his debt and is being hunted by the Bandits, taking refuge from them in [[TruceZone the train station currently being used by Duty and Freedom]]. The player can help Vano by either paying off his debt for him, scaring Jack into forgetting the debt, or if you're feeling up to it, wiping out Jack and the Bandits. [[spoiler:Given that trying to pay off the debt will get you mugged on your way out, and killing the Bandits will net you Jack's rare Armsel semi-automatic shotgun and a ton of grenades, the third option is honestly the best one.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'', there is one among the clone Kingdom of Mikes. The aptly named Loan Shark Mike has chosen to be a loan shark as his lot in life. Unfortunately, he's not very good at it as he has completely misinterpreted the job name, [[LiteralMinded taking it literally]]. He wears a shark costume over his clone combat armor and keeps bugging his fellow Mikes, constantly trying to loan his shark suit to them much to their annoyance.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:'' The Outcasts of Kadara Port, in-between gang-warfare and protection rackets, also run a loan service. Ryder can stumble across the corpse of [[TooDumbToLive one particularly stupid person]] who took a loan from them, and didn't realise they'd want him to pay them back (you know, the definition of a loan). Amazingly, the Outcasts weren't what killed him.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', there's Rowena, who is the one selling the special items and such to Player Characters. She has a massive debt towards Gerolt because of his inability to control his drinking and is the main reason he helps the Players in creating their relic weapons. At the end of the Anima Weapon line, despite having been promised all his debt erased for helping make the weapon, she ''immediately'' reminds him that that was the debt ''[[ExactWords before]]'' [[ExactWords he went to make said weapon]]. It's so bad that, when the player character is helping with the reconstruction of Doma, one of the suggested comments over someone wanting to barter with Rowena is that they should barter their souls to a voidsent than her. And that's the ''serious'' suggestion.
** In the ''Shadowbringers'' expansion for the game, the Warrior of Light meets a woman who's clearly the MirrorUniverse version of Rowena. She, like her reflection, [[BlatantLies plays her House of Splendors up as a thing of sincerest charity.]] The Warrior simply shakes their head, believing none of it.
* Leopold Strauss is a downplayed one in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', but he lends money to rather desperate people and when they don't pay up, he sends [[VillainProtagonist Arthur Morgan]], who won't be too shy about roughing up those people. [[spoiler:Arthur despises him for targeting decent folks, and eventually throws him out of the Van der Linde gang. Collecting on the first debt is also what gets Arthur exposed to the tuberculosis that afflicts him in the last chapters of the game and possibly eventually kills him, depending on his karma.]]
* In ''VideoGame/FairyGodmotherTycoon'', loan sharks are [[VisualPun literally sharks]]. The player can borrow money from them to finance their business enterprise.
* ''VideoGame/SystemCrash'': The player's initial goal at the start of the Neon Noir campaign is to earn 10k credits to pay off a loan shark before she sends her goons to [[OrganTheft harvest the player's organs]].
* This is part of the establishing prologue of ''VideoGame/BattleTech2018''. Three years after the Directorate coup, you and your band of mercenaries are deep in the red to some extremely shady 'banks' who are heavily implied to be in league with various pirate gangs as well as the corrupt Jumpship crews herding you into a tiny, unprofitable corner of the Periphery. Their all-but-stated plan is to keep you floating on interest and going further into debt, thereby giving them adequate cause to repossess your valuable ''Leopard'' DropShip and the cargo bays full of HumongousMecha. This is when Kamea Arano returns from exile [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated after her assumed demise]] with a rather gracious and benign version of AnOfferYouCantRefuse: she'll buy out your debt notes from the banks, in exchange for your service to her as her {{Cadre Of Foreign|Bodyguards}} PraetorianGuard, kicking off the plot in earnest.
%%* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'': Harold Hayworth, in his past, was done in so bad by a loan shark backed by TheMafia that he sent his daughter to a friend (who then sent Renne of to be a SexSlave) for safety, only to find the place burned to the ground once out of debt. This made him into TheAtoner as a cheritable merchant and spoil his second child, Colin, who was the main reason he and his wife didn't kill themselves out of guilt. %%gets off-topic%%

* The defendant in case three of ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'' is Magnus [=McGilded=]. He's a man with enough money to [[Fiction500 buy the city of London]], but he regularly [[WealthyPhilanthropist donates that money]] to public works projects like [=McGilded=] Park. He's also been accused of [[BreadEggsMilkSquick stabbing a man to death in an omnibus]]. During the trial, it turns out that [=McGilded=] loaned his fortune to various debtors, [[spoiler:including the witness [[AwesomeAussie Bruce Fairplay]]]], only to charge them at extremely high interest rates - classic LoanShark behaviour. [[spoiler:Although [=McGilded=] [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty dies]] before the whole truth can come to light, it's also heavily implied that he was ''[[EvilAllAlong actually guilty]]'', a rarity for [[Franchise/AceAttorney this series]].]] Later events [[spoiler:outright confirm he was the murderer, dispelling any [[AmbiguouslyEvil ambiguity]] about his actions. It also turns out that he [[JuryAndWitnessTampering threatened a witness to his crimes]], a [[WouldHurtAChild seventeen-year-old girl]], into testifying and forging evidence in his favor.]]

* Thematically invoked in ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' which shows the Greed ring of Hell being inhabited by shark-like demons engaged in the criminal underworld. We don't know if they are engaged in actual Loan Shark activities, but given that what we've seen of them so far heavily resembles TheMafia, it is highly likely.

* ''Webcomic/{{Zortic}}'' starts with Zortic being subtly threatened by a loan shark. The kicker?
## He looks and talks like Jabba the Hutt in a Mafioso suit, and ...
## ... he's in the ''student loan business''.

* ''Webcomic/LivingWithInsanity'' had an example. While David doesn't act violent toward Alice, one has to wonder how she managed to [[http://www.livingwithinsanity.com/index/?p=352 rack up a debt that high]] after just a year.

* An episode of ''Sniz and Fondue'' on ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' had Fondue borrowing a quarter from a loan shark to make a phone call, and he quickly accumulates a $200.00 debt because the guy charges "...200% interest-- by the ''minute''." The debt increases to $10,000.00 by the end of the episode, but fortunately the guys win a cash prize in a radio contest that they use to pay off the debt.
* WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker encounters this in the short ''The Loan Stranger'', where his car crashes and goes kaput, so Woody manages to get a loan of one dollar from the nearby Sympathy Loan Company--but it later escalates to $365 in interest, not including the dollar he had yet to pay back. (justified, as Woody simply forgot to pay the loan back after 30 days.) The Loan Shark in question (who is a wolf[[note]]his species is an old visual shorthand for the phrase "wolf at your door"[[/note]]) tries everything in his power to get Woody to pay back the loan. Woody tricks him into calling off the loan when he thinks he smashed Woody's head--only for Woody to pop up and ask for a loan on his cuckoo clock, much to his chagrin.

* Mario Condello was portrayed as such in ''Series/{{Underbelly}}'' with the idea being played up to the point of beating down those he loans to so they cannot pay, take everything from them, and laughing as a teenager is DrivenToSuicide. Both the man himself and his best friend [[TheDon Mick Gatto]] were very upset at how he appeared.
* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'' the Iron Bank of Braavos is essentially described this way [[MegaCorp on a ''nation-state'' scale]] -- you don't pay them back, they fund your enemies -- but contrary to [[MorallyBankruptBanker what that might imply]], they really don't play favorites and only judge a debtor's ability to repay, so once Davos Seaworth claims that his king is actually more reliable than the one physically on the Iron Throne -- essentially offering to be their collector -- [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure the bankers come around and agree to fund Davos' king]].
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': Jake goes to one in "The Apartment", the episode where his apartment is going on co-op and he is left hanging, as he hasn't paid his rent in ''years''. It takes Gina to have to tell him that this is an extraordinarily bad idea; even if Jake is friends with the guy, he charges a 20% interest rate.
* One of crime boss Datak Tarr's "activities" in ''Series/{{Defiance}}'', in the pilot he has a man's wrist broken for bringing him a payment in public on the street. Though later he offers to forgive the debts of anyone who fights to defend the town from the Volge attack (*cheers*).
* ''Series/InspectorGeorgeGently'': A pair of loan sharks force a woman who is TrappedByGamblingDebts into prostitution in "Gently Among Friends". Bacchus deals out a little street justice to scare them off.
* In one episode of ''Series/FullerHouse'', Ramona and Jackson borrow money from Max, and Max forces them to be his servants to pay him back.
* ''Series/GetShorty'': Miles and Louis primarily work as debt collectors for Amara's casino and criminal enterprises.
* ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'': In "Midway to Midtown," when Joel is trying to turn around his parents' garment factory to make it more efficient and profitable, he's pretty exasperated by their various corner-cutting methods. (Moishe is from a line of Jewish immigrants who are systemic Anti-Semitics; which contrasts with Joel, who has just come after quitting a corporate job with professional accountants.) At one point, Joel and his secretary Mrs. Moscowitz discover a ledger that Shirley says is the "special loans book".
-->'''Joel:''' "Special loans" book?\\
'''Moishe:''' ''[shrugs]'' What?\\
'''Shirley:''' That's personal.\\
'''Joel:''' Don't tell me you're borrowing money from those guys.\\
'''Moishe:''' Once in a while!\\
'''Joel:''' ''[{{facepalm}}]'' I can't believe this!\\
'''Moishe:''' You see it yourself, the machines break down. Those machines are ''expensive''. How else are we supposed to get that kind of cash?\\
'''Joel:''' From a bank!\\
'''Moishe:''' What are you, a big shot?\\
'''Joel:''' Banks don't break your legs or throw you in a river!\\
'''Mrs. Moscowitz:''' ''[flipping pages]'' I'm seeing amounts here, I'm seeing names, but I'm not seeing any dates for when the loans are due.\\
'''Shirley:''' Oh, well, we know when the loans are due. A couple of guys break in in the middle of the night, they bust up some chairs and windows, and ''that's'' when we know the loan is due.\\
'''Moishe:''' Shirley, stop helping me...
* ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDylgzybWAw an entire segment]] on the payday loan business and their negative impacts on their clients, and ends with Creator/SarahSilverman doing a parody of celebrity sponsorship ads for payday loan companies in which she encourages viewers to do literally anything else to avoid dealing with payday loan services.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': While investigating a murder in "Black Ice", Vera and her team uncover a loan shark operation operating under the cover of a taxi firm. Many of the 'drivers' hanging the base are actually the loan shark's enforcers, known as 'dogs' by his clients. While the VictimOfTheWeek was threatening to blow the whistle on his operation, the loan shark turns out not to be responsible for her murder, but still gets shut down.
* ''Series/{{The Punisher|2017}}'': In the first episode of season 1, Lance, a worker who antagonizes Frank Castle regularly on a construction site in Brooklyn, is deeply in debt to a loan shark from the Gnucci crime family, who is threatening to break his legs and repossess his car. His buddy Paulie comes up with the idea that they should [[RobbingTheMobBank rob a poker game run by one of the Gnucci members]] and pay back the shylock with his own cash. The robbery goes awry as Donny Chavez, a naive newcomer who gets roped into the job, drops his wallet, allowing the Gnucci boss to see his driver's license. Lance and the others promptly take Donny back to the construction site with the intention of drowning him in the cement mixer, only to run into Frank, who promptly kills them all and saves Donny, then goes to the site of the poker game and kills the Gnucci boss as he and his men are arming up to go after Donny in retaliation for the robbery.
* ''Series/{{Jessica Jones|2015}}'':
** One episode of season 1 sees Jessica get recruited by Luke to help him track down a guy who has gone ghost and is in debt to a local loan shark named Leonard Sirkes. Luke is tracking down Antoine because he's acquainted with someone who knows the bus driver who supposedly ran over Reva (actually killed by Jessica on Kilgrave's orders).
** In "AKA I Want Your Cray-Cray", Jessica's boyfriend Stirling Adams borrows money from a guy named Wyatt ostensibly to fund his own club, Club Alias. But it's clear that Stirling doesn't know anything about managing a club and just cares about getting laid. When Wyatt and his buddies fail to see a return on their investment, they come to Stirling demanding their money back. Jessica scares them off, but they agree to meet Stirling a few days later at a bar and offer to forgive his debts if he has Jessica accompany them on some heists. The whole exchange is witnessed by Jessica's mother, who subsequently beats Stirling to death in a fit of rage as soon as the gangsters leave. The police subsequently arrest the gangsters for the murder, since Stirling was last seen leaving the bar with them, and Jessica tells the cops about Wyatt's earlier visit to Stirling's apartment.
* ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'':
** Wilson Fisk's father borrows from a mob boss, Don Rigoletto, to fund his campaign for city council, with the expectation that Bill Fisk will pay back Rigoletto through kickbacks. Unfortunately, Bill's asshole nature costs him the election, and little Wilson kills him with a hammer shortly thereafter. Wilson and his mother then cut the body up and dump it and people just assumed that Bill ran off to avoid retribution from Rigoletto. Then again, the comics and some dialogue in season 1 show that Fisk afterwards went to work for Rigoletto, possibly to pay off his father's debts at first.
** In the present day, season 1 opens with Fisk having recently killed Rigoletto and taken over his loansharking rackets. James Wesley makes his introduction strong-arming a corrupt jail guard who owes $29,000 to the recently [[DeadlyEuphemism "retired"]] Rigoletto into carrying out a hit on Karen Page in exchange for his debts being forgiven, threatening the man's daughter to secure his cooperation. The hit fails, with Karen drawing blood from one of his eyes with her nails, so after having him bailed out, Fisk has him killed and his death staged to look like a suicide.
** A twisted example happens in season 3, when Fisk goes after Foggy's brother and parents to get leverage over Foggy. He does so by directing the various suppliers who have contracts with the Nelsons' butcher shop to stop doing business with them. After several months, the shop is driven into a tight financial spot, where they don't have enough collateral to get a loan from the bank. It is then that Fisk has his contacts at [[MorallyBankruptBanker Red Lion National Bank]] reach out to Theo and his parents. The loan officer tricks them into cooking their books and making their assets look healthier than they really are, enabling the loan to go through without a hitch. With evidence of Foggy's family committing fraud to blackmail Foggy with, Fisk lets their old suppliers resume business with them. Things go by smoothly until Foggy begins campaigning for DA in response to Fisk's release from prison, and a viral video surfaces of him humiliating Blake Tower in a public forum while listing the various crimes Fisk has committed since he got out. In response to this, Fisk sends [[EvilBrit Felix Manning]] to Nelson's Meats and has him threaten to have Red Lion call the loan, and Foggy's family sent to prison for fraud, if Foggy doesn't recant the public claims he's been making about Fisk.
* Bud Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' one time foolishly fell into debt to a loan shark named Vito Capone since Bud really wanted to make a sexual exercise video to make money.
* ''Series/SWAT2017'': In "[[Recap/SWATS02E16Pride Pride]]" Deac gets a loan from one who used to be one but went straight and now gives out legal loans (though they're very similar), to pay for an operation that his daughter needs. He gets it off the books however, and the result is much the same.
* ''Series/TheFBI'': In "The Scourge", Erskine and Rhodes are investigating Johnny Albin, a "juicer" who makes loans to desperate businessmen and then uses his leverage to take control of their companies for Cosa Nostra boss Mark Vincent.
* ''Series/TheBeautyQueenOfJerusalem'': During TheThirties, Gabriel goes into debt to buy his family, especially [[ParentalFavoritism Luna]], nice things. He then takes out more debts to pay back the first debts, despite middleman Avram's repeated advice not to borrow from a loan shark (who turns out to be Gabriel's old nemesis [[spoiler:Morduch]]). It gets to the point that Gabriel is forced to sell half his stake in the family delicatessen to [[spoiler:Morduch]].

* The Front, as Wrestling/{{CZW}}'s other giant PowerStable, as the Gulak campaign, [[EvilerThanThou learned the hard way.]][[/folder]]

* OlderThanSteam: Creator/WilliamShakespeare used this in ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. The loan shark in question, Shylock, is in fact one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s, although he's a more tragic example, at least by later interpretations.

* A rabbi with mobster loan shark connections is the BigBad of ''VideoGame/TheShivah''.
* In ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'', the President of Hocotate Freight has to go on the run from debt collectors after discovering that the company's loan came not from Happy Hocotate Savings & Loan, but from the building next door, the All-Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks. Previously the TropeNamer.
* This trope drives the plot of the ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' prequel ''The Misadventures of Tron Bonne''. Tiesel paid for the Gesellschaft by taking out a loan from Lex Loathe, who kidnaps him and demands it in full from Tron. Naturally, being a SkyPirate, she gets the money by plundering banks, farms, towns, and via a little bit of dungeon crawling. [[spoiler:When Tron gathers the money Lex demands she also pay interest, and when she gathers ''that'' he demands she [[MovingTheGoalPosts pay interest on the interest]] -- at this point she remembers she and her family are ''pirates'' and just goes in, guns blazing, to rescue Tiesel and destroy Lex's entire operation as payback]].

* In ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'', the player can borrow money from a loan shark, with three days to pay it back. Once the time expires, two goons will start to chase the player. The longer you wait without paying back the loan or getting killed, the loan shark becomes more aggressive and eventually starts sending helicopters after you.
* ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'' has a literal version of this as a building-only Cashbot cog.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' has Tom Nook, via MemeticMutation. In reality, Tom isn't much of a loan shark, as he'll gladly let you take your time to pay off your debt to him, he doesn't expect you to pay it all off at once, and the debt doesn't collect any interest. He'll even let you shop at his store while you're working to pay off the debt, and even hires you for a while when you first move in, so you can work off part of the debt, [[JustifiedTutorial do some errands, and learn the ropes]]. However, once you pay off the debt, he'll offer building an extension to your home. [[ButThouMust And he won't take no for an answer]]. In summary, he's kindlier and more forgiving than most examples on this page, but he ''does'' have an annoying tendency to [[MovingTheGoalposts move the goalposts on you]].
* A large percentage of the early parts of ''VideoGame/AtelierJudieTheAlchemistOfGramnad'' is spent paying off a very high debt incurred to one of your party members in exchange for a place to stay. He doesn't threaten Judie with violence, but he's not very nice about it either.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'', there is a guy named Lorenzo Giovanni who runs the Friendly Loaning Company in the Hub. He claims to be a respectable businessman, but is actually a loan shark that has ties to the local crime lord. If the player doesn't pay off his debts, his two thugs attack him. The loan has 10% daily interest, and must be repaid within 10 days. Considering how long it takes to travel from town to town, it's almost as if Lorenzo doesn't want you to pay it back.
* Byron Pikit in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' is a loan shark who has ties to the underground. In a sidequest you discover a fraud scheme in which he stole the documentation regarding a paid loan from a wealthy widow, resulting in her [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil being sold into slavery]] with her assets seized. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even his accomplice is disgusted with this]] and provides you with the evidence required to free her and put him away.
* In the old Platform/AppleII/TRS-80 game ''VideoGame/{{Taipan}}'', you can borrow money from Elder Brother Wu. The interest rate is quite high, and if you don't pay him back he'll eventually send thugs to beat you up. Amusingly, [[GoodBadBugs you can pay him back more than you owe]], which causes you to have a ''negative'' debt--to which the same exorbitant interest rate is applied. He still sends thugs to beat you up, but with the money you can very quickly make this way, you'll be able to take them on.
* ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'': In the final board called Bowser Land, there are the Bowser Banks. On every other board, if you pass by a bank, you must deposit 5 coins, but if you land on the bank, you get all the money everyone has deposited. The Bowser ones? Give ''away'' money to everyone passing by, then force whoever lands on the bank to ''pay back'' the total amount, and if you don't have enough, they will happily take a Star off you instead.

* Tear the Fairy of ''VideoGame/RecettearAnItemShopsTale'' is basically a Loan Shark in all but name (despite how much she tries to deny this) but is willing to help Recette pay off her father's debts as a business advisor for her item shop. She'll still repossess her house if Recette fails though. [[spoiler:And then she'll turn back time (to Day 2) and give Recette all of the stuff she got before her failure and give her another shot at it. As many as it takes.]] Tear actually [[DiscussedTrope discusses aspects of the trope]] during the opening. She mentions the finance company she represents would prefer to see the shop succeed and clear the debt that way, since not only would repossession displace a minor, but even without overheads they'd never get their capital back on the building alone. However, they're still on the brink of that last resort, as Recette's father is just that far in the hole.[[labelnote:*]]Including whatever interest accrued prior to game start and over the month or so Recette has left, the debt is 800,000 and change. For scale, Recette can renovate the storefront twice, to over double its initial footprint, for considerably less.[[/labelnote]]
* ''VideoGame/IndependenceWar2: Edge of Chaos'' has Caleb Maas, who also doubles as a CorruptCorporateExecutive. He claims that Felix Johnston hasn't paid him back, although Felix himself objects and says that he's paid him ten times over. Maas apparently expected this and threatened to "close his account", by which he means "[[MoralEventHorizon KILL HIM]]". As if that weren't enough, Felix's son Cal Johnston (protagonist and PlayerCharacter) ''inherits'' his father's debt (as shown in some main menu screen text) in addition to just becoming orphaned, and not too far into the story, Maas gets him imprisoned for life with ease, as the authorities don't even bother to question Maas... until he breaks out with some other fellow prisoners 15 years later and becomes a SpacePirate like his grandmother. [[AsYouKnow Needless to say,]] [[ItsPersonal it's VERY personal.]]
* Averted in the ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' PC game, where a loan shark interviewed in the first case was offended at the implication that he'd kill a debtor who hadn't paid him back, since [[PragmaticVillainy that would prevent him from ever getting the money back, period]].
* In ''VideoGame/DeathRally'' you can borrow money through a "loan shark" option (it's literally called that).

* Piers Anthony's ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, has literal sharks do this job; they, of course, charge an equally literal arm-and-leg minimum for their services.

* Harn suffers from a case of them early on in Literature/TheLegendaryMoonlightSculptor.

* This is how Count Kalliovski of ''Literature/TheRedNecklace'' gains power over people.
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** The Intergalactic Banking Clan is one of the corporate interests backing Count Dooku's Separatists during the Clone Wars. This MegaCorp behaves like loan sharks on a galactic scale, charging steep interest rates and maintaining a private droid army to collect on defaulters.
** ''Literature/StarWarsKenobi'' shows some of Jabba the Hutt's other business interests on Tatooine, besides smuggling. After his friend Dannar's vaporator began producing incredibly delicious water via MiraculousMalfunction, local {{Rancher}} Orrin Gault invested heavily in that vaporator model and attempted to replicate the results. But he can't get the settings quite right, and his promised payoff to his creditors is not forthcoming. [[spoiler:He spirals into his downfall from there. First, he goes into debt to Jabba's thugs to save off the bank, then starts embezzling from the Settlers' Call Fund, which the other settlers entrusted him with since he's so apparently rich and successful. When he can't get enough from that, he turns it into a MonsterProtectionRacket.]]
* ''Literature/HannahSwensen'': [[spoiler:Max Turner]] in ''Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder'' is one, and died at the hands of someone who stood to lose their home if they couldn't pay up.
* The BigBad of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novel ''Borrowed Time'' offer their [[TheCon marks]] watches that literally allow them to borrow time, giving them extra hours in the day to complete their work and so on. They do, of course, have to pay it back eventually, at the very reasonable rate of one hour per hour per hour. Nobody thinks too hard about what the second "per hour" means, until the Doctor realises that everyone with a watch is ratcheting up more compound interest than they have lifespan.
* In his memoir ''Literature/AngelasAshes'', Frank [=McCourt=] reveals that he was able to get out of a cycle of grinding poverty when, as a delivery boy, he was recruited by a female loan shark to write threatening letters for her (she was [[NeverLearnedToRead illiterate]]). One day, he arrived at her apartment and found her dead of some sort of natural causes. He used that opportunity to steal all the money he could find and also take her account book and destroy it, so that her debtors would be free of their debts.

* In ''Literature/TheStormSwimmer'', Ginika's family is evicted from their London flat, and her parents send her to stay with her grandparents in Cumbria, even though she wants to stay in London. Her parents eventually tell her the real reason they sent her away: they owed money to loan sharks and were afraid they'd go after Ginika if they couldn't pay up.

* Niki Sanders of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' borrows money from a Las Vegas mob boss, Mr. Linderman, who sends thugs after her to retrieve it. In a twist, Linderman actually doesn't care much about the money. [[spoiler:He's much more interested in having Niki's... ''interesting'' family under his influence.]]
* In a comedic [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], ''Series/ThreesCompany'' had Jack teaching a loan shark's lusty wife to cook because he couldn't pay back his loan.
* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E8TabulaRasa Tabula Rasa]]" features a loan shark that menaces Spike. He also happens to be an [[VisualPun actual demon shark guy]]. And the currency of the loan was kittens. After seeing her fighting prowess first hand, the loan shark offers Buffy some "freelance" debt collection work.

%%* In "'Series/TwinkleTwinkle'', both the poor dad and the rich son end up owning lots to the local "''money lenders''".
* In ''Series/SquidGame'', LoserProtagonist Gi-hun gets jumped by one he owes money to [[DiabolusExMachina immediately after winning a big payday gambling]] [[TemptingFate and bragging to his daughter about the expensive dinner he was going to treat her to]]. He then [[PercussivePickpocket bumps into a pickpocket while running from them]], and when he fails to produce the winnings they strongarm him into signing away his physical rights [[BloodOath in his own blood]] and threaten to harvest his organs if he misses another payment.

* There's also an episode in ''[[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Criminal Intent]]'' where the loan shark is so impatient to get his money back that he kidnaps a guy's family, during which his hired kidnapper rapes one of the daughters. [[SarcasmMode Big surprise]]? He's a former member of the [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars Serbian Volunteer Guard]],[[note]]One of many nasty Serbian paramilitaries, charged with war crimes[[/note]] though he tries to pass it off as a member of a Serbian infantry regiment. Too bad he didn't know that Goren knew what the letters on his tattoo stood for.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'', one of the life-savers loses money with gambling and has to get a loan with 20% cumulative interest. Per month.
* Used ''quite a lot'' on ''Series/TheSopranos''. It's all but stated that this is one of their main sources of income. (Whenever a character is talking about his "shy", it's his share of the loan sharking.)
** David Scatino is a local sporting goods store owner who [[TrappedByGamblingDebts gets in over his head in poker debts to Tony]]. Tony then "busts out" Scatino's store, buying random crap and exhausting its assets and lines of credit until it is forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation). (Scatino says in-universe it's going to be Chapter 11. While he may have intended to file for Chapter 11--reorganization of debts, with creditors to be repaid from future profits--we very clearly see the liquidators roll into the store, take everything, and put up a "for lease" sign, so we can be reasonably sure that even if he filed an 11, it was converted to a 7). This culminates when Tony, in [[IdiotBall a genius move]], gives Meadow an SUV that he took as collateral from Scatino, ''her boyfriend's father''.\\\
This situation actually presents a very peculiar circumstance for a bankruptcy attorney: after the "bust-out", Scatino's debts must have been ''staggering'', but in theory at least, all the crap Scatino's business "gave" for the mobsters to sell (or take for themselves) were a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraudulent_conveyance fraudulent transfer]] or an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfair_preference unfair preference]], so David and/or the trustee would be well within their rights to sue Tony to make him give the money back, and Scatino would win given the amount of evidence in his favor (then again, who in their right mind sues a mobster?). The FBI could've also used this as a means to flip David.
** Christopher loaning to, beating, and ultimately murdering his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.
** One of the thugs exploits Vito by borrowing money from him, then turning him in to the rival New York family that wanted him dead.
** Lorraine Calluzzo, one of the "Class of '04" released alongside Feech [=LaManna=], Tony Blundetto, and Angelo Garepe in Season 5, is a noted "Lady Shylock" of the Lupertazzi family.
** Even Angie Bonpensiero gets in on the game, "putting money out on the street" after she gets ahold of Big Pussy's old body shop. (She doesn't do any beating herself, but it's obvious she controls guys who do).
* Hal goes to one on ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' to pay Malcolm's college tuition, explaining that there's no way he can pay it back, but he's offering to be the guy who gets his thumbs broken as a lesson to everyone else. He quickly changes his mind once the loaner suggests that he could simply not give Hal the money and still break his legs.

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. Kramer places a large bet with a bookie in Jerry's name and ends up winning a large amount of money (the precise figure is [[UndisclosedFunds never revealed]]). Unfortunately, his bookie is very new to the business and cannot afford to cover the bet. Since Jerry never actually placed the bet at all, he is in no rush to get the money, but he keeps accidentally behaving like a debt collector. First he breaks the guy's thumbs (trying to help close his car trunk), then he locks him in his trunk (trying to ''fix'' the trunk), and in the end he seemingly plans a murder (Overheard while still stuck in the trunk). All of it (in true ''Seinfeld'' fashion) is unintentional and misinterpreted to turn Jerry into an unstoppable debt collector.
* Kenji from ''Literature/DeepLove'' borrows some money from some loan sharks to pay for his drug addiction, unfortunately he got fired from his job because of his drug addiction. It doesn't end well.
* An episode of ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'' has the enforcer for this type of shark loitering in the station's lobby, waiting for loan-defaulter Johnny Fever to turn up. He was only given a vague description of what Johnny looks like, so of course HilarityEnsues.
* One story in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' deals with an All Devouring Black Hole Credit Card, [[spoiler:which literally repossesses your existence if you don't pay up]].
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' had an Outland Revenue man in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIBetterThanLife Better Than Life]]" who was instructed to "to break both (Rimmer's) legs and pull off your thumbs-...[[WithDueRespect sir]]" for some money Rimmer owed. [[spoiler: The episode ends with the Outland Revenue man taking a hammer to Rimmer's hand. He was, however, virtual]]. Given that Outland Revenue appears to be based on the RealLife Inland Revenue, he was probably collecting taxes, not loans, but the trope is functionally the same.
** [[TheDeterminator "Just because we're three million years into deep space and the human species is extinct. That means nothing to these people. They'll find us!"]]

* Joe [=McIntyre=] fell victim to one in ''Series/CoronationStreet''.

* ''Series/{{Hack}}'' had an episode where Mike, the protagonist becomes the personal driver of a local mob boss who is a LoanShark. When a restaurant owner is about to be beaten for not paying back a loan, Mike saves the guy and the mob boss makes him personally responsible for collecting the debt. He tries to be reasonable but it turns out the the restaurant owner is actually TooDumbToLive and does not intend to pay back the money. If Mike can't get the money, he will owe the mob boss and thus having to join the crime gang to avoid getting killed. Desperate he ends up threatening the restaurant owner with a bat till the guy give up the money. Disgusted he quits and goes back to being a taxi driver.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' had a loan shark trying to get the vig from Max Eilerson's ex-wife. He responded by using an alien artifact that was used to control prisoners, mentioning that it will kill on proximity to either him or the wife, or by a manual code entry.
* In ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'', some evidence quite often implicates loan sharks who the VictimOfTheWeek had dealings with in one way or another, whenever they come up, but it's never them who's guilty of the episode's murder. All of the loan sharks of the show's universe apparently operate by the more sensible but less exciting rule, "I can't get my money back from [insert victim's name here] if I kill him/her," and just scare/threaten them with violence or rob them, but never go any further than that. In fact, when questioned, they typically state the victim had just paid them back with interest, which is a lead Beckett's team can investigate with a little ForensicAccounting.
* When she appeared as a guest on ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'', TV's glamorous mathematician [[Series/{{Countdown}} Carol Vorderman]] was given an unrelenting hard time by the other panelists because she was earning handsome fees endorsing a payday loan company that charged 6,000% interest. [[note]]FirstPlus loans was forced out of business by the regulators for illegal and unethical conduct, and the Advertising Standards Authority banned several adverts featuring Carol as "misleading"[[/note]]
-->Hey, Carol. If you take a £500 loan from [=FirstPlus=] at 5,990% APR, how much do you end up paying back after six months, and how soon does the company grab the house you put up as security because you can't afford the repayments? Come on, you can do this in your head, you're good at maths, that's why they pay you to front their adverts!
* ''Series/OnceUponATime's'' Rumpelstiltskin AKA Mr. Gold, in addition to being a pawn broker and the landlord for pretty much the entire town, frequently operates as a particularly inflexible loan shark. Mr. Gold is not a man you want to be indebted to.
* A ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode has Charles borrow $50 from Sgt. Rizzo to purchase a valuable Chinese vase from a Korean vendor. When the week's payroll is eaten by [[ExtremeOmniGoat Klinger's goat]], he's forced to wait to repay, and Rizzo charges 100% interest per day.
* In ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'', a loan shark named Ovidius keeps pestering Batiatus to repay his debts. Eventually, Batiatus has enough and has the man and his family murdered.
* ''Series/DocMartin'': It turns out that Bert has had to go to some loan sharks to keep his restaurant afloat.
* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', Max Holden ran into trouble with one of these. After foolishly borrowing $10,000 from him so that he could go gambling, Max was stunned when the man was not only incensed when he could only pay him back half, but demanded that he be paid an extra $2000 in interest on the remaining amount. Only then did it finally dawn on him that he was dealing with a LoanShark. Even then, it still took the man not so subtly threatening him, his mistress, and finally his wife and kid [[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive (by showing up at their home)]] for him to scramble and come up with the money.

* In the mystery film ''Film/NineDead'', Sully is a Las Vegas loan shark who has connections with the mob. He firebombed the homes of the people who refused to or couldn't pay him, which he regrets because he didn't know there were people inside at the time. [[spoiler:This later turns out to be the key plot point in the mystery, as it was his loan that Christian had to pay back by any means that set the entire story in motion.]]
* In ''Film/{{Barefoot}}'', a loan shark's threat to "smash [the protagonist's] head open" if he doesn't pay up sets off the entire plot.
* In ''Film/Armageddon1998'', Rockhound borrows $100,000 from a loan shark (in the back of a dry cleaning store, no less) figuring that they're going to die on the mission. (Making his volunteering to stay and set off the nuke understandable.) He mentions to Chick that he spent the money on a stripper named "Molly Mounds," and Chick deadpans, "You got problems."
* ''Film/TheDrop'' has Cousin Marv, who used to lend to [[spoiler:Glory Days (a nickname for the guy). He was very in debt, but a freak lottery win meant he could pay Cousin Marv back and then some. Because Cousin Marv was himself heavily in debt, he killed Glory Days so no one knew he was solvent.]]
* In ''Film/StVincent2014'', Vincent is in deep with one; when he calls around with a gun and some muscle and tries to steal Vincent's wife's jewelry to pay off the debt, [[spoiler:Vincent suffers a stroke]].
* ''Film/{{Cyberjack}}'': Nick is in debt to a local criminal who is waiting for him in Nick's home at one point with several of his goons.
* James Caan ''in Film/TheGambler'' played a college English teacher whose gambling addiction throws him into the clutches of a loan shark.
* The main character of Kim Ki-duk's ''Film/{{Pieta}}'' is an enforcer for a loan shark, whose job is to threaten people into paying what they owe and to maim them if they can't pay.
* In ''Film/ThisIsYourDeath'', the neighborhood loan shark actually turns down Mason's request for a loan, because he knows Mason is a decent man and respects him, ''and'' because he knows that Mason will never be able to repay him.
* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Hatchet Harry]] from ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' is an evil loan shark who wants to get revenge against Eddy's father, JD, for [[DisproportionateRetribution beating Harry at cards quite a few years previously.]] He's quite happy to give Eddy a debt of half a million pounds and one week to find it. If he fails, Harry will [[{{Fingore}} cut off a finger for every day that passes without payment]].
* In ''Film/ChangeOfHabit'', practically everyone in the neighborhood owes money to [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The Banker]], who dramatically hikes up the price with every missed payment and has his goons beat anyone who can't afford to pay him.
* ''Film/Parasite2019'' has loan sharks as the GreaterScopeVillain. The film's BigBad [[spoiler: is a homeless man, Geun-sae, who is living in the rich family's mansion's bunker (that they don't know about) because he defaulted on high-interest loans he took out of negligence and {{greed}} all for a Taiwanese cake shop, which bombed in business and accrued debt big enough that he'll never pay it off in a lifetime. Geun-sae's wife has said that the loan sharks are still pursuing Geun-sae to cut him open for his organs.]]
* Martin Scorses's gangster movies generally feature these:
** ''Film/MeanStreets'' has the not very scary (apparently) Michael.
** ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' features the ''very'' scary Jimmy Conway.
* ''Film/{{Ana}}'': Rafa is in debt with one after losing a bet on cock fighting. He has only a short time to pay it off (on the news its shown that another debtor was murdered).
* in ''Film/TheHitList'', Allan is in hock to loan shark Dom Estacado, who becomes name #3 on Allan's hit list.

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind''. The Loan Shark who appears, Devi, doesn't send thugs to collect money. She just has [[FunctionalMagic a small, sealed vial of her client's blood]]. ''No one'' ever has the courage to find out what nasty sort of magic she will do to those who are delinquent in their payments, and the protagonist Kvothe goes to great lengths to avoid paying late. Apart from this, however, Devi is really [[AffablyEvil quite pleasant]].
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': The Goblins that run Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Ludo Bagman owes them ''a lot'' in gambling debts, and has conned Fred, George and a whole lot of other people out of their bettings to pay them back... and it's still not enough. This is why he keeps trying to help Harry during the Triwizard Tournament, since he bet that Harry would win.]]
** Even more so in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', when Harry makes a deal with one to help him [[spoiler:break into Gringotts bank so they could steal/destroy Hufflepuff's Goblet]]. What Harry didn't know, and had to find out the hard way, was that [[spoiler:Goblins view every single Goblin-made item as being "borrowed" instead of "bought", and that they despise the idea that Goblin items are handed down through generations of human families. He learns this when, being trapped in the vault, Griphook chooses that exact moment to make off with Gryffindor's Sword and escape]].
* Mack Bolan (of ''Literature/TheExecutioner'' series) sets forth on his [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge campaign]] against the Mafia after his father snaps under pressure and kills his own family in a murder-suicide, brought on by the revelation that his daughter was prostituting herself to pay his debt to Mafia loan sharks.

* In the Literature/{{Dragaera}} novels, this was one of the areas of crime engaged in by Vlad Taltos while a member of the Jhereg, a fantasy equivalent of TheMafia. His organization is relatively reasonable, in that when someone is a business owner making an effort to pay, they are likely to be lenient about payment or else take over the business temporarily before using violence, although they are more than willing to break the kneecaps of recalcitrant debtors. It's suggested that the Jhereg are the source of loans for the common people, which is understandable given that the group associated with banking, the Orca, are [[CorruptCorporateExecutive less than trustworthy]].
* Literature/AdrianMole gets in this trouble once for his naivete and ends up several hundred thousand British pounds in debt.
* Piers Anthony's ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, has literal sharks do this job; they, of course, charge an equally literal arm-and-leg minimum for their services.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Troll mobster]] Chrysophrase provides this service. He's described as [[IWillTearYourArmsOff "having people's limbs torn off"]] as a penalty for non-payment; so again, owing him an arm and a leg [[LiteralMetaphor can be quite literal]].
** In ''Literature/{{Mort}}'', when Alberto goes back to Ankh-Morpork after a 2000 year absence, he finds a small bar tab he had has been handed down, and has interest added. Subverted because of what Alberto does when he has the discussion over the ancient, now huge, bar tab.

* In Guy du Maupussant's short story "[[http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/gdemaupassant/bl-gdemaup-thenecklace.htm The Necklace]]", the young couple are compelled to deal with loan sharks to get the money to replace the lost necklace. It takes them ten years of scrimping and penny pinching to get out from under the debt. [[spoiler:Only at the end do they learn that the necklace was actually just costume jewelry.]] The double sting? They'd bought the replacement themselves without ever asking the owner what the cost of the original lost one was.

* Half the premise of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' is that the hero's parents, being pursued by exactly these kinds of loan sharks in the form of the {{Yakuza}} (a.k.a. the [[UnusualEuphemism Very Nice People]]), agree to ''[[OffingTheOffspring sell him to them for his organs]]'' without his knowledge in order to repay their debt.
** Although that plotline is closed up in short order it's likely that both [[spoiler: Hinagiku and Yukiji's parents and Luka have had dealings with these same type of people.]]

* One of the characters in ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'' owes the Yakuza a large amount of money. And it just keeps getting larger.
* A running theme in seinen manga ''Manga/WaGaNaWaUmishi'' is how they are ever going to pay off the astronomical $14 million debt they owe the bank. The slimy loan officer never fails to turn up to collect most of their earning whenever they do a succesful job.
* Disaster survivors such as Faye Valentine of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' didn't get their [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic treatment]] for free.

* ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'' kicks off with the initial female lead (who fades out of the story after a while) renting/selling herself into teenage prostitution because of her father's crushing debt, caused by a loan-sharking bank. At first it was indicated that her parents had sold her, a la Hayate above, but later it emerges that they have no idea she even knows how dire their financial straits are. The girl is rescued by Akumetsu, who kills the central bureaucratic fat cat with an axe before having his head blown off. A later arc involves Akumetsu taking on the leaders of various banks in a shame-and-threaten campaign on national television after running across the girl's father contemplating suicide by revenge-with-large-truck in a playpark on his way to school.

* The Otogi Bank from ''Literature/OkamiSan'' functions this way, although they deal in social debts and not finances.
* One entire manga is about loan sharks, ''NaniwaKinyudo'', though from a more realistic perspective -- they operate legally if exploitatively, charging extremely high interest to desperate people, sometimes merely making sure they will get ahold of the collateral, but also doing things like manipulating them to take second jobs or go into prostitution.
* More than one of these appear in ''Manga/CaseClosed''. Unsurprisingly, they '''all''' become {{Asshole Victim}}s of their cases. Of special note is the pawn shop owner Akira Sumida, who is such a bitch that at least ''three'' people want her head.
* Tom of ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' is a pleasant, even-tempered man who works in the loan shark business for some Yakuza-types. He doesn't like using violence and generally relies on his super-strong and hot-tempered friend/partner Shizuou to frighten recalcitrant customers.
* Those in ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'' are quite happy to pursue not only their debtors but also those who have co-signed for them in nefarious ways.
* The basic premise of ''Anime/CControl'' is that mysterious beings loan people large amounts of money, with the condition that they must then gamble it in weekly inter-dimensional tournaments. Go bankrupt, and you [[RetGone lose your future, literally]]. The resident LoanShark person, Masakaki, even regularly displays shark teeth when being particularly greedy.
* While Knuckle from ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' isn't an ''actual'' LoanShark, his nen ability, Hakoware, is themed this way. Every time he hits an opponent, he lends them some of his nen, making them more powerful. But the loaned nen accrues interest every ten seconds, and if the opponent don't hit him back to return the nen he gave them, they'll eventually go over a certain limit and "bankrupt", [[PowerNullifier losing their nen for a month.]]
* ''Manga/CityHunter'' has an old man trying to rob the Yakuza loan sharks who bankrupted him and ruined his life. Thanks to having used his last money to hire the best courier of Tokyo's underground to drive the getaway car and said courier having hired Ryo as a bodyguard, he not only succeeds and gets away with it but gets the satisfaction of seeing the car of the Yakuza enforcers wrecked.
* Part of the reason Hayate from ''Manga/HayateXBlade'' joins her school's sword-fighting tournament in place of her injured sister is because a group of {{Yakuza}} loan sharks left their old orphanage under a mountain of debt.
* The Twilight Ogre guild in ''Manga/FairyTail'' operates this way. When Fairy Tail falls on hard times, Twilight Ogre offers them money, then spends the next seven years harassing them and destroying their property when they fail to pay back all their interest. [[spoiler:After their strongest members return after getting frozen in time and find out what happened, Fairy Tail [[ExactWords pays them back]], all right--[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in terms of all the suffering and damages their guild sustained over all those years]]. Twilight Ogre promptly leaves them alone after that.]] Mirajane also implies after having looked at the ledgers they seem "odd", implying Twilight Ogre had been exaggerating the actual debt and interest to squeeze more money out of them.
* Drakken Joe from ''Manga/EdensZero'' is the head honcho of a civilian space fortress whose residents are all completely swamped in debt to him. When one unlucky sap owes him millions, Drakken's response is to [[AttackTheMouth mess up his mouth with a broken glass bottle]] before offering to let him suffer any FateWorseThanDeath of his choice until he can finally pay him back. He always takes special care not to ''kill'' his debtors, though; [[PragmaticVillainy he can't get his money back if they're dead]]. [[spoiler:That, and they're always useful as [[LifeDrinker fuel]] for his life-support machine.]]
* Futaba's abusive uncle Youji in ''Anime/Persona5TheAnimation'' is in massive debt due to a gang of loan sharks. When Sojiro refuses to give him or his niece any money, he is next seen being beat up by the gang. Ren sees this, but walks away.
* ''Manga/SilverPlanToRedoFromJK'': Maki and her father are pursued by some loan sharks due to the father's debts. These loan sharks are somewhat nicer than most, especially their leader Okamura: when the family doesn't have enough money to pay them back on one occasion, he takes what they have and simply warns them to have enough money the next time.

* One ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' comic book has the Scooby-Doo gang in Vegas for unspecified purpose. Shaggy is, at one point, threatened by two enormous thugs who demand $30. Later on, he frantically visits a loan shark and says he needs $30 on the spot; the loan shark is happy to oblige, but he'll need $100 in an hour. At this, Shaggy runs off in a panic, making excuses. The kicker is that Shaggy had at no point done anything to actually incur this debt -- he was just randomly assaulted by two goons who weren't going to take "broke" for an answer.
* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' universe, one of the most lucrative rackets is Body Sharking, a form of loan sharking where suspended animation technology is used to keep the debtor's loved one as collateral. You don't pay up and mummy dearest will never wake up -- especially not after having her [[OrganTheft organs harvested]], a different one being removed for each missed payment.
* The Robert Asprin/Mel White graphic novel ''Duncan and Mallory: The Bar-None Ranch'' has the main characters and their fellow con-artists dealing with a gang of literal loan sharks.
* The ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'' has Soapy Slick, who tried to swindle Scrooge [=McDuck=] out of his entire fortune by claiming that he was never paid off on an ancient debt with an outrageous interest rate. AscendedFanboy Creator/DonRosa later added another detail to the deal: originally, the debt had a ten percent per month interest rate and Soapy even allowed Scrooge [=McDuck=] to ReadTheFinePrint to be sure there wasn't any. What Scrooge failed to notice was the fact there was enough space between the "10" and the % sign to add another zero.

* One ''Magazine/{{Mad}} Magazine'' "Melvin and Jenkins" sketch has the kindly Jenkins assure friends he's loaned money too that they can take as much time as possible to pay it back. Melvin does too, but also wakes them up every morning at 3:30am with a tape recording of a ''kneecap being broken in two places at once'' until they repay the loan.
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': Frank doesn't like loan sharks anymore than he likes any other type of criminal, and puts them pretty high on his list.

* ''Fanfic/NewGamePlusOnePiece'': Nami is no better than in canon; she agrees to cover the damage dealt by Luffy's demonstration of strength for "200% interest per week, with a bimonthly increase of 27% and a semi-annual fee of 2,500,000 Beri until completion." [[EvenEvilHasStandards Buggy is appalled]].
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5483280/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Champion-s-Champion Harry Potter and the Champion's Champion,]]'' Gringotts acts like this to particularly pesky clients, [[ReadTheFinePrint with Section 48, Subsection A, Sub-Subsection 18]], which, to be fair, are usually [[JerkAss jerkasses like Lucius Malfoy or the publisher of the Daily Prophet]]. The interest, revealed in the [[ReadTheFinePrint fine print]] is compounded weekly, not annually, like [[TooDumbToLive Lucius]] thought. Lucius ends up forced to dig tunnels for the goblins with his bare hands to WorkOffTheDebt and is eventually released when he is more trouble than he's worth, dumped in the arctic at the age of over three hundred, [[ShootTheShaggyDog and eventually eaten by a polar bear.]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Mr. Perkins, the CEO of the Bank of Evil ([[TakeThat formerly Lehman Brothers]]) and the GreaterScopeVillain of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'', seems to act as a loan shark. He lent Gru large sums of money to pull off great heists and has angrily ranted at Gru for failing to reimburse those loans. He then shows Gru his hand squeezing an ''apple'' into pulp and telling Gru that he's running out of patience. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:he also turns out to be the father of Gru's rival Vector; this was shown when Gru successfully stolen a shrink ray machine and showed his plan on using it to shrink the moon; Mr. Perkins instead closes Gru's accounts as he wants Vector to initiate the plan himself.]]
* Ursula from ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', who will give merfolk their dreams come true for a certain price, and will turn them into wretched, worm-like creatures if they can't payback.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Jabba the Hutt is a gangster who does loan sharking, but his primary business with Han in the films is in smuggling. The money Han owes Jabba is the value of the lost cargo, and he keeps adding interest to the debt.
* Pizza the Hutt from ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' is a parody of Jabba the Hutt. He arbitrarily raises Lone Star's debt to him to one million spacebucks, citing "late charges".
* In ''Film/TruckTurner'', one of the hero's old friends is in debt to a shady fellow. A RunningGag is that he keeps making a few extra marks on the IOU that exponentially raise the debt every time his debtor angers him. He turns a 1 into a 4 the first time, for example.
* The hero of Creator/TakeshiKitano's ''Hana-bi'' (''Film/{{Fireworks}}'') should really have known better than borrow money from the yakuza. However, he might be even more badass than them, being played by Beat Takeshi and all.
* Gene Co in ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'' fill this role. They'll lend you money so you can get an organ transplant - but if you miss a single payment, they'll send out their Repo Man to ''take the organs back''...
* In ''Film/{{Stroszek}}'', a regular loan is taken out by the lead and the love interest, which they can't quite afford. [[SubvertedTrope In contrast to these examples]], the bank worker is comically non-combative. Things still don't turn out well.
* In ''Film/Twins1988'', Danny [=DeVito=]'s Vincent is hounded by a family of violent loan sharks in virtually every other scene. Getting their asses kicked by Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Julius (Vincent's twin brother -- ItsALongStory) doesn't deters them, but running into [[spoiler:Webster, the hitman chasing Vincent, does. Presumably having one of them [[KneeCapping getting a bullet through the knee]] finally convinced them that they were in over their heads.]]

* ''Film/TheSinisterUrge'', a film by Creator/EdWood about the dark, twisted crime world of pornography, uses this trope. The porn studio is shown to prey on young, unsuspecting girls by having the nice, sweet porn director hire naive girls as actresses and offer to front them money to live on, complete with paying their rent and buying her expensive dinners in order to prepare her for work at his studio. As one girl found out, though, her first "audition" has her meeting the director's financial backer and secret head of the porn syndicate. When she fails to get the drift when ordered to seductively pull up her skirt and show the porn boss her "hat", the porn boss reveals that it was HER money that the actress was living off of during the previous weeks and that if she doesn't do the movies the porn queen wants her to do, then she would contact the actress's father to make him pay back the money.
* In Ken Loach's ''Film/RainingStones'' the main character borrows money from loan sharks to buy his daughter a communion dress. This plot turns up a lot in social-realist film and TV.
* An odd subversion, in the Thai movie ''Film/{{Chocolate}}'', the main character is collecting loans found in her loan shark mother's ledger, to fund her mother's cancer care. None of the debtors wants to pay up, so she's forced to beat them up.
* In ''Film/{{Rounders}}'', Worm had accumulated several fairly small poker debts before going to jail. His former partner, Gramma, sensing an opportunity for a good score, goes around and buys off all Worm's creditors, meaning that Worm now has one ''big'' debt to him. Gramma states at least once that he's more than willing to use the traditional loan-shark "collection methods", but the real threat to Worm -- and by extension, Mike -- is [[spoiler: fellow poker player and underground poker club owner Teddy KGB, who is called KGB because of his strong connections to the Russian mob. Turns out that Teddy provided the money for Gramma's business venture, figuring they'd both make a nice profit from the interest.]]
* Gazzo in the first two ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' movies. In [[Film/{{Rocky}} the first]], Rocky works for him collecting money and beating up people who don't pay. Or in his trainer Mickey's words, he's: "a legbreaker for a cheap, second-rate loan shark". In ''Film/RockyII'', Rocky's brother-in-law Paulie gets his old job. Gazzo is seen with a date rooting for Rocky during the climactic fight of both movies. Working for Gazzo later comes back to haunt him in [[Film/RockyV the fifth movie]].

* The movie ''Film/TomCats'' had a cartoonist going to Vegas for a friend's wedding, where he ends up losing thousands, even though he said he had stopped. The casino owner said the roll was legitimate because he gave the dice to a hooker, who rolled for him. This kicks off the main plot, and one of the major {{Running Gag}}s throughout the rest of the film is repo men hired by the casino owner [[RidiculousRepossession taking everything the cartoonist owns one piece at the time as collateral]].
* The Hong Kong comedy movie ''Film/SharkBusters'' has these (and they are more honest and fair than the legal versions).
* Two of the villains in ''Film/SuicideKings''. Who it is that owes them money becomes a plot point.

* ''Film/BrassedOff'': Phil borrowed money to support his family during the Great Strike in 1984. Now, at the same time that the rest of his life is going down the toilet, they step up their efforts to collect.
* The main antagonist in ''Film/{{Limitless}}'' is a loan shark and his thugs who apparently have connections to TheMafiya. Eddie eventually manages to pay him off, but the man continues to harass him because he sampled some of Eddie's NZT (a drug that temporarily enhances intelligence and memory) and wanted the whole batch.

* ''Film/DirtyWork'': Dr. Farthing (Creator/ChevyChase) the gambling-addicted doctor is being "asked" to pay back his loans.

* The movie ''Film/TomCats'' had a cartoonist going to Vegas for a friend's wedding, where he ends up losing thousands, even though he said he had stopped. The casino owner said the roll was legitimate because he gave the dice to a hooker, who rolled for him. This kicks off the main plot.

* In ''Film/Twins1988'', Danny [=DeVito=]'s character is hounded by a family of violent loan sharks in virtually every other scene.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' series (and its unofficial spin-off ''VideoGame/Kura5BondsOfTheUndying'') features Dark Loans, run by a girl named Doomy. Dark Loans allows Django to revive from death or to refill his energy during dungeons, the latter of which can be useful when the Sun is down. However, Doomy also charges obscene interest rates, with it being uncommon to see her at ''800% or higher''.[[labelnote:*]]It should also be noted that Dark Loans' interest rate is inversely proportional to how much UV radiation hits the sensor when you take out the loan. The more radiation hits the sensor, the lower the interest is.[[/labelnote]] If the player can't pay their debt in three days' time, Django is kidnapped and forced to run on a treadmill until he's built up however much energy he owes.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' series (and its unofficial spin-off VideoGame/Kura5BondsOfTheUndying) features Dark Loans, run by a girl named Doomy. Dark Loans allows Django to revive from death or to refill his energy during dungeons, the latter of which can be useful when the Sun is down. However, Doomy also charges obscene interest rates, with it being uncommon to see her at ''800% or higher''.[[labelnote:*]]It should also be noted that Dark Loans' interest rate is inversely proportional to how much UV radiation hits the sensor when you take out the loan. The more radiation hits the sensor, the lower the interest is.[[/labelnote]] If the player can't pay their debt in three days' time, Django is kidnapped and forced to run on a treadmill until he's built up however much energy he owes.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' series (and its unofficial spin-off {{VideoGame/Kura5BondsOfTheUndying}}) features Dark Loans, run by a girl named Doomy. Dark Loans allows Django to revive from death or to refill his energy during dungeons, the latter of which can be useful when the Sun is down. However, Doomy also charges obscene interest rates, with it being uncommon to see her at ''800% or higher''.[[labelnote:*]]It should also be noted that Dark Loans' interest rate is inversely proportional to how much UV radiation hits the sensor when you take out the loan. The more radiation hits the sensor, the lower the interest is.[[/labelnote]] If the player can't pay their debt in three days' time, Django is kidnapped and forced to run on a treadmill until he's built up however much energy he owes.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' series (and its unofficial spin-off {{Kura5BondsOfTheUndying}}) features Dark Loans, run by a girl named Doomy. Dark Loans allows Django to revive from death or to refill his energy during dungeons, the latter of which can be useful when the Sun is down. However, Doomy also charges obscene interest rates, with it being uncommon to see her at ''800% or higher''.[[labelnote:*]]It should also be noted that Dark Loans' interest rate is inversely proportional to how much UV radiation hits the sensor when you take out the loan. The more radiation hits the sensor, the lower the interest is.[[/labelnote]] If the player can't pay their debt in three days' time, Django is kidnapped and forced to run on a treadmill until he's built up however much energy he owes.

* You can take out a loan in ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'' and ''Boktai 2'' from Dark Loans. If you can't pay it back in three days, you're kidnapped and forced to run on a treadmill until you've built up however much energy you owe.
** The game heavily advises against patronizing Dark Loans, however, and says that Dark Loans should be resorted to only once you've expended your last resort. The crazy-ass interest rates help drive the point home. Their only real benefit is being able to borrow anywhere at any time, even in the middle of a boss battle -- the chances of such a scenario are low, but if you're out of ammo and recovery items halfway through fighting [[ThatOneBoss Sabata]], suddenly their offer to fill your tank for an exorbitant fee sounds a lot nicer than giving up, reloading your save, farming items, and starting the fight from the beginning...
** It should also be noted that Dark Loans' interest rate is inversely proportional to how much UV radiation hits the sensor when you take out the loan. The more radiation hits the sensor, the lower the interest is.
** Apparently, Django didn't listen. In ''[[VideoGame/{{Boktai}} Lunar Knights]]'', Laura of the Solar Bank tells you at one point that Dark Loans went ''bankrupt''!
** Neither did his father Ringo. Though you don't get to hear the whole story, Otenko begins to tell you of a NoodleIncident implying Ringo got into some serious trouble from borrowing from these cretins, but Otenko stifles himself and brushes it off with a "nevermind" -- as Ringo only recently died fighting the Immortals, [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead telling the story would be in bad taste]].
** While you could get a special weapon by running yourself deep in debt five times in ''Shinbok'' (the [[NoExportForYou japan-only]] third Boktai game), as the loan shark believes you're purposely running into debt [[CannotSpitItOut as an excuse to see her]], this is most likely not what happened in ''Lunar Knights'', as those two games are in different continuities.

* Mr. Perkins, the CEO of the Bank of Evil ([[TakeThat formerly Lehman Brothers]]) and the GreaterScopeVillain of ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'', seems to act as a loan shark. He lent Gru large sums of money to pull off great heists and has angrily ranted at Gru for failing to reimburse those loans. He then shows Gru his hand squeezing an ''apple'' into pulp and telling Gru that he's running out of patience. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:he also turns out to be the father of Gru's rival, Vector.]]

* ''Series/TheBeautyQueenOfJerusalem'': During The30s, Gabriel goes into debt to buy his family, especially [[ParentalFavoritism Luna]], nice things. He then takes out more debts to pay back the first debts, despite middleman Avram's repeated advice not to borrow from a loan shark (who turns out to be Gabriel's old nemesis [[spoiler:Morduch]]). It gets to the point that Gabriel is forced to sell half his stake in the family delicatessen to [[spoiler:Morduch]].