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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   26739 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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There’s also the option of not needing specifically credit history to get a loan or further credit, if you have other financial info available. For example, in Israel you can get a loan from your bank based on your salary income, which is known to your bank anyway.

What are personal bankruptcy laws like in Israel?

A lot of non-US folks express surprise at US credit systems but when I look into their banking laws personal bankruptcy is extremely difficult to qualify for, it's very easy in the US to have all your personal debts discharged.

I honestly don’t know enough about either sets of laws to draw any meaningful comparisons.

it's very easy in the US to have all your personal debts discharged

Used to be before bankruptcy act reform. Now unless you have no assets and no job they force you into "voluntary reorganization" (debt slavery).

Can you tell me more about this? Googling it just brings up links to legalese on government websites.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bapcpa.asp

Consumer credit access and rates in the US are typically determined by a combination of credit score, loan to value (how levered the asset is), and debt to income (how manageable are the debt payments relative to how much you make).

As far as I'm aware, in the EU, income stability is in general a much more important factor (often the only real factor) than credit rating except for negative events.

You can do that with credit cards in the US, with your credit limit usually scaling with income. Of course the interest rates on credit cards are much higher because it's basically for people who can't get a loan otherwise.

There are of course better credit cards for people who are more responsible with credit, and those tend to come with points/cash back, not a lower interest rate(although there are lower rate cards available for people with good credit). The real lender of last resort is those payday/title loan places, which likewise have maximal interest rates.

I’m more curious about Israel not checking default risk before giving a loan; that seems like it’s ultimately a lose-lose because you can’t get a lower rate.

They are, they're just not using positive credit history, they're using income history and negative credit history.

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