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277 points cebert | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.401s | source
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PostOnce ◴[] 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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msgodel ◴[] No.44362133[source]
I tried using one of these offering a 0% intro APR to finance an upgrade to the boat I eventually moved into (saving me 10s of thousands in rent.) They wouldn't let me do it despite having an upper 700s credit score.

It's not clear to me how they pick people to lend to.

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1. avianlyric ◴[] No.44364434[source]
Yeah a high credit score isn’t what that lender is looking for. They don’t make money of people who actually repay the loans, indeed they tend to loose rather a lot (cost of capital + cost of account admin).

If someone is offering you a 0% APR loan, it’s either because they’re hoping you’ll move your loans to them, and become unable to leave once the 0% period has ended. Or they’re trying to sell something else (either more of something, or the same thing at a higher price), and want use consumer debt to artificially increase market demand.

You upgrading a boat, so you can save money in the long term, is literally the opposite outcome they’re looking for here.

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2. jack_riminton ◴[] No.44364529[source]
Exactly. The thing I always have to remind myself: issued loans aren't liabilities for companies, they're assets. Assets need a return!