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America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

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Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#381

Post by silisili »

throwaway68911 wrote: post #364
TexanFeller wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit scores make more sense if you think of them not as scores of your ability to pay back debt, but as scores of likely profitability for the creditor. Someone who never carries a balance and never will pay the occasional late fee is less profitable and thus has a lower score.

How to improve your credit score ... get credit cards and pay most of them off, but never close them. Once you have established credit you will then be offer 0 APR credit cards for 12 to 48 months. With a zero APR credit card that has a balance say of 10,000 your monthly minimum payment is 1% of that so $100. $20,000 $200 a month ... once the APR promo ends transfer it to another card with zero APR. Closing credits h…

Not necessarily.

My credit today is good, but not perfect. I have trouble getting any new credit card. All for the same stated reason - too much available unused credit.

I'm sure my score would dive if I closed a bunch, just pointing out that having a bunch isn't always a good thing.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#382

Post by selimthegrim »

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #12
lmpdev wrote: post #3

I know there are regulatory rules which partially explain the fragmented banking sector in the US compared to other nations: four example in Australia we only really have 4-5 proper banks Are there other reasons that small banks have seemed to thrive in the United States but no where else?

I would say the fact that banking is not something that is legally the authority of the federal government; even though states have seemingly acquiesced to their role and right eroding and being taken from them as the federal government persistently oversteps its bound and becomes ever more authoritarian. It’s something even most Americans don’t even understand anymore, let alone foreigners or immigrants; that the US…

We already had unit vs branch banking play out…in the late unpleasantness shall we say

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#383

Post by selimthegrim »

newswasboring wrote: post #67
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what's the situation now? Your country could gradually he heading towards a two party system.

No we are heading to a one party system. But that has nothing to do with first past the post. There are several historical and social reasons for that.

Do you live in India?

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#384

Post by Rury »

golergka wrote: post #160
omgomgomgomg wrote: post #152

Why exactly should banks be private companies at all? Theyre just skimming middle man between the government and end consumer. Sure, the government would know your bank balance and spendings, but that could be worked around If youre in trouble with the irs or the law, the government will have all the insight they request. Sounds crazy? We the people had to bail them out and never get anything of their profits. Too bi…

There's no "should" because there's no high authority in humanity which decides what should and shouldn't exist. Banks exist because some people want to found banks and then other people want to use their services. The only way to prevent this from happening is to threaten violence or threat of violence to either of these people. The better question would be, why would anyone use violence to force his opinion on othe…

The answer to that question, is the very same reason you gave for why banks exist.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#385

Post by orbisvicis »

merek wrote: post #358
TexanFeller wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit scores make more sense if you think of them not as scores of your ability to pay back debt, but as scores of likely profitability for the creditor. Someone who never carries a balance and never will pay the occasional late fee is less profitable and thus has a lower score.

I think you need to factor in risk. This is a simplistic example but demonstrates the influence of risk. Who would you rather lend a mortgage to? - Group A, consisting of people who prudently pay debts early - Group B, consisting of people who pay debts on their due date, and sometimes after Let's say you lend $100B to each group A and group B. Historical data might show that in aggregate, group A has a default rate…

Totally outside my wheelhouse, but I'd imagine that interest on debt could eventually make group B more profitable if the default rate isn't too high. Or perhaps have group A partially cover the interest of group B because they're lower risk and likely have higher income.

I imagine that late fees increase the cost of repayments while debt interest increases the number of payments thus not hindering the ability to make future payments.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#386

Post by hectormalot »

WaxProlix wrote: post #378
teekert wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find this to be a baffling thing about the American system. Where I live we never take out a loan (except for houses) and most cards are debit cards. The American system seems to punish the way we act here, like you, you can be perfectly credit worthy but you have not been a good loan-taking rent-paying citizen? It feels dirty to me.

What metrics do they use there to determine your loanworthiness?

Where I live there is a central register that identifies total exposure as well as red flags (late payments). Exposure is weighed differently. E.g. a 25k car loan might lower the acceptable mortgage by 25-100k because it’s backed by a depreciating asset and has higher interest rates. Similarly, a 5k credit card limit can have 2-5x the impact on a mortgage application.

loan/credit application is mostly based on your income (you can maybe borrow up to 4.5-5x your gross income for a mortgage), how certain your income is, for example whether you have a temporary or permanent contract, and if there are no red flags in the last few years.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#387

Post by mixdup »

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #12
lmpdev wrote: post #3

I know there are regulatory rules which partially explain the fragmented banking sector in the US compared to other nations: four example in Australia we only really have 4-5 proper banks Are there other reasons that small banks have seemed to thrive in the United States but no where else?

I would say the fact that banking is not something that is legally the authority of the federal government; even though states have seemingly acquiesced to their role and right eroding and being taken from them as the federal government persistently oversteps its bound and becomes ever more authoritarian. It’s something even most Americans don’t even understand anymore, let alone foreigners or immigrants; that the US…

This is a great diatribe and all, but it totally ignores the fact that it's not 1787 anymore, and we've changed as a country--including changing the Constitution. Change, I should note, the drafters intended for us to make and continue to make as our circumstances changed, as technology changed, as knowledge changed, and as society changed.

I won't get into debates about the Interstate Commerce Clause or anything like that. It's more fundamental. We're not the same country we were just out of the Articles of Confederation. If you lined up the 39 people who signed the document, or the 56 people who signed the Declaration of Independence and told them that after 250-odd years we were trying to live exactly to the standard they set without any progress or changes, they would consider the experiment failed.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#388

Post by voakbasda »

toast0 wrote: post #139
tester756 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this why some people recommend to take loan for something that you have money? Like - you wanna spend 30K on a car and you have it in cash? take loan you'll lose a some $$, but you'll be building your history.

I don't know what factory car loans look like now, but for my last new car, they offered me a 5-year 0% loan vs a $500 incentive if I paid in cash. Safe interest rate paid for the missed incentive. It's a smidge less convenient to have a loan, but no big deal.

In the face of persistent annual inflation, a 0% loan ends up yielding a net discount when compared to saving your money over the same time span and paying cash. Of course, that's only true if you're diligent about paying on time, but automatic recurring payments can take care of that problem.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#389

Post by fuzzzerd »

hanoz wrote: post #375
TexanFeller wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's sense in what you say and that's one reason why different scores are sometimes used for mortgages vs CCs etc. But one could also imagine ways in which zero risk creditors might be less desirable to mortgage lenders. They might be more likely to prepay the loan or refinance quickly and stop making those interest payments prematurely. I payed mine off massively early due to some good fortune - wonder if the mor…

Fair point. It's a sorry state of afairs when you have to speculatively reverse engineer the algorithms run by a state-sanctioned oligopoly of private firms holding your own data gathered with, at best, coerced consent, and artificially structure your affairs in an attempt to present yourself as a dependable and unadventurous cash cow

You accurately, amusingly, and concisely articulated the situation. In a way that underscores the absurdity of it.

Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?

#390

Post by atkailash »

Spivak wrote: post #346
HWR_14 wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never proved you could handle more than $500 in debt. You then asked for maybe three-orders of magnitude more debt. Surely you can appreciate that difference.

There's no difference at all for someone who works a dayjob. The only thing that matters is that you have you demonstrated that you can make a fixed monthly payment reliably. Paying your bills, paying your rent, paying your CC all demonstrate that. If you rent a $1500/mo apartment you actually have managed $18k of debt. Doing the same thing but this time with interest proves nothing the others don't. Borrowing histor…

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