An online lender charges up to725 percent interest on short-term loans. Is that legal?

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The father said he didn’t know the interest rate on the loan, other than it was absurdly high. When I looked up the online lender, an apparently legitimate business called Clear Air Lending, I was stunned to see it charges as much as 725 percent on its loans. That’s right, 725 percent.

With excellent credit you currently can get an unsecured personal loan for as low as about 7 percent interest, and even with bad credit you can get one for as low as about 36 percent.

Clear Air’s rates are 20 to 100 times those rates.

The father asked to be identified by only his first name, Steve, and that his son’s name not be used, to protect him from being a target in online scams.

Steve said his son has a type of schizophrenia that causes delusions and hallucinations, primarily involving paranoia. He said his son spends a lot of time on the internet, where he regularly gets scammed for money after visiting dating sites.

The son obtained the loan in November after about 15 minutes on the phone, according to Steve. Clear Air required little more than a bank account and source of income, he said, and the $500 appeared in his account the next day.

Steve said he constantly cautions his son about online dangers. But he thinks lenders should be prohibited from making loans with ridiculously high interest rates, especially if little is done to determine whether would-be borrowers are cognitively well enough to understand their loans.

Clear Air says on its website: “Short-term loans like ours are expensive” — understatement alert — and that it “encourages [borrowers] to make extra payments or repay early to reduce the finance charges.” I suppose that’s good advice, but it seems a little insincere coming from a lender charging as much as 100 times the going rate.

Resolution: In a phone call, Steve arranged with Clear Air to pay off his son’s loan for $1,050 plus principal. He then filed a complaint with the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, which is pending.

I contacted Clear Air by phone and email about the loan and was told someone would get back to me, but I got no on-the-record communication from the lender. I wanted to discuss the terms of the loan and make the case for a refund to Steve’s son. I certainly believe he is owed one.

Takeaway: Aren’t there laws against charging outrageously high interest rates?

Yes, there are. In Massachusetts, charging more than 20 percent on a loan is a criminal offense, known as usury. The limit on credit card interest in Massachusetts is even lower: 18 percent.

You may wonder how come you’re getting charged more than 18 percent on your credit card. (The average credit card interest rate in Massachusetts is around 23 percent.) It’s because the banks that stand behind (and profit from) credit cards are required to comply only with the laws of the state in which they are chartered, not in all the states in which they operate. Of course, banks gravitate to the states with the weakest usury laws, or no laws at all.

Clear Air is not chartered in any state, as far as I can see. It is owned and operated by the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California, a federally recognized tribe. Tribal law governs the loans it makes, the website says.

I was also contacted by a reader who said her 84-year-old father was dropped from the long-term care insurance policy he’s been paying into for about 15 years. The reader said her father was upset because he considered the insurance company to be at least partially responsible for the lapse in payment that triggered termination.

Putting aside who was at fault, I want to share something I learned: If you or someone in your family has a long-term care policy, make sure there’s a third-party designee on file with the insurer.

Most insurers terminate a long-term care policy after two missed payments, though policy owners can appeal for reinstatement. Insurers send written notice of termination to the insured party (the father in this case). But sometimes the insured person misses it or doesn’t understand it.

That’s when the third-party designee can spare everyone a lot of stress and anxiety: The designee gets the same notice and presumably will recognize that urgent action is needed.

The father’s policy in this case got reinstated after I contacted the insurer on his behalf by email.

Sometimes those who produce concerts and other events hold on too tightly to the money they’ve collected in ticket sales after a postponement. So long as there’s any possibility of a makeup concert there’s usually no refund, even when the concert is postponed indefinitely.

But why not refund a ticket when that’s what the consumer wants? After all, the terms of the original sale have changed through no fault of the consumer.

Case in point is Smokey Robinson’s postponed concert at the Wang Theatre (part of the Boch Center), which was scheduled for Dec. 7.

Ann and Mark Schneider, who live in Natick and are frequent concert-goers in their mid-70s, said they were looking forward to seeing the Hall of Fame soul singer after paying $284 for two tickets.

But the concert was canceled with no makeup date. I asked the Boch Center about a refund on behalf of ticket-holders. Finally, last week, Schneider got word the concert is now canceled and she’ll get a refund. Meanwhile, Robinson is continuing his “legacy tour” elsewhere in the country and has concerts planned in England and Scotland. But not Boston.

Giving a refund to anyone who asks for it under these circumstances seems the fair and businesslike thing to do.

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Got a problem? Send your consumer issue to sean.murphy@globe.com. Follow him @spmurphyboston.