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FICO to incorporate buy-now-pay-later loans into credit scores

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277 points cebert | 5 comments | 24 Jun 25 00:03 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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PostOnce ◴[24 Jun 25 00:47 UTC] No.44361768[source]▶
Theoretically, credit should be used for one thing: to make more money. (not less)

However, instead of using it to buy or construct a machine to triple what you can produce in an hour, the average person is using it to delay having to work that hour at all, in exchange for having to work an hour and six minutes sometime later.

At some point, you run out of hours available and the house of cards collapses.

i.e., credit can buy time in the nearly literal sense, you can do an hour's work in half an hour because the money facilitates it, meaning you can now make more money. If instead of investing in work you're spending on play, then you end up with a time deficit.

or, e.g. you can buy 3 franchises in 3 months instead of 3 years (i.e. income from the 1 franchise), trading credit for time to make more money, instead of burning it. It'd have been nice had they taught me this in school.

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1. scarface_74 ◴[24 Jun 25 01:51 UTC] No.44362148[source]▶
And this has nothing to do with buy now pay later since you aren’t charged interest
replies(1): >>44364468 #
2. PostOnce ◴[24 Jun 25 09:58 UTC] No.44364468[source]▶
Owing money you don't have has disadvantages even without interest.

For example, if you make 5000 dollars a month and get a 5000 dollar BNPL loan for a stereo, payment due in a month, then even without interest, you now either starve or default on the loan (or incur penalties, i.e. the interest you thought didn't apply).

replies(1): >>44364800 #
3. scarface_74 ◴[24 Jun 25 11:00 UTC] No.44364800[source]▶
You realize almost every phone in the US that you buy through the major carriers has worked like this for decades?
replies(1): >>44365915 #
4. immibis ◴[24 Jun 25 13:16 UTC] No.44365915{3}[source]▶
Why would you buy your phone through a carrier? Is it the good old US lack of regulation so it's the only option carriers let you have? I get my phone and my SIM card separately.
replies(1): >>44366268 #
5. scarface_74 ◴[24 Jun 25 13:51 UTC] No.44366268{4}[source]▶
Why not? It’s an iPhone the same as any other iPhone with no carrier bloatware. It usually comes at a discount with monthly credits.

Even if I do buy directly from Apple using the Apple credit card, it’s still 2 years with no interest and the same BNPL in all but name.

And now it’s all eSIM anyway. If I go to another country I just activate the second eSIM.

And it was never about the phone makers not letting you have the phone. Some low end phones even today don’t support all of the carriers frequencies and back in the day you had phones that had to support CDMA vs GSM and even then different parts of spectrum were used by different carriers.

Mobile phones at first “free” with a two year service plan and later as a second line item has been the most popular way to buy phones in the US since I was selling them at Radio Shack in the mid 90s.

I would get a commission based on a $300-$400 phone and the customer paid $1 up front.