But if you view the payoff as not certain, $100 now is worth a lot more than $150 in a month - because you are here now with $100. The $150 is worth its normal discount rate multiplied by the strength of the probability that you will be here in a month with $150. The discount rate here is entirely due differences in risk of nonpayment - which are marginal when comparing 60 months to 61 months, but massive when comparing now to an hour from now.

According to criteria that would label hyperbolic discounting irrational or illogical, debt collectors are equally confused for not accepting the promise of a $100,000 payoff 50 years from now rather than a settling of the debt today.