The main objective of this study was to explore the short term consumer credit high interest rate conundrum and the infectiveness of policy regulatory interventions. The study develops an alternative model which addresses the major interest rate cost drivers subject to stakeholder engagement through suitability, acceptability and feasibility assessment. This was because previous studies have arguably unsuccessfully attempted to solve the matter through policy regulation albeit without satisfactory stakeholder engagement hence the shortcomings.  Detailed Action Research Model was used. Multivariate data from 8000 short term consumer credit stakeholders was analysed using Google Forms analytics, Advanced Microsoft Excel Statistics Analysis Package (AMESAP) and N vivo. The measure of strength of evidence against the null hypothesis amongst individual consumers was about 87.5% on the suitability centric hypothesis and 100% on both acceptability and feasibility centric hypothesis. The semantic and thematic analysis on merchants and employers as key stakeholders indicated about 80% suitability and acceptability, and about 90% for feasibility. These findings suggest that the alternative model informed by key stakeholder engagement would be more appropriate to address the adverse effects of high cost short term consumer credit than regulation.

 Key words: Short-term Consumer Credit, High Interest Rates, Policy Regulatory ineffectiveness