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What seemed weird when I visited your country
pwhodges:
May's overdraft is interest-free only because she's a student; otherwise one would be paying interest as for any credit or loan - usually at a reasonable rate. An additional fee will be charged if the overdraft is unauthorised - i.e. if it's not been arranged in advance; but if you know you have a shortfall for a little while you can ask your bank to set up an "overdraft facility" to cover the maximum you expect to need to borrow and for the required period. If your relationship with your bank is not so good, of course, there may be some hard bargaining to get the facility, or indeed a refusal - as with any loan. The advantage of an overdraft is that you pay interest at a daily rate, so less interest is due than if you got a personal loan from another source, paying interest on the whole amount while some of it is sitting in your current account waiting to be used but earning nothing in return.
Pilchard123:
Lloyds Bank is also quite good in that if you hit your overdraft you can get away without paying any fees if you clear it by the end of the day, possibly 3pm. (IDK what bank May uses.)
calenlass:
--- Quote from: Akima on 07 Nov 2013, 01:01 ---shotties
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I realize this was like 2 pages back, but it reminded me of this:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hieTxQ0oJPc
Also, May, as far as I am aware, in the US a mortgage is basically the biggest credit line you will ever take out. It's a loan, obviously, and that's what bank credit essentially is. Therefore you have to have good credit to be approved for a larger mortgage and/or better interest rates and whatnot, and a typical suburban or near-urban house that most people find "acceptable" here is probably upwards of the 1500 sq ft range and on the cheap end run around $100k; my parents' house was $325k for 1000 sq ft plus a basement, and is in a near-urban neighborhood by the Atlanta airport. I don't know anyone anymore who actually has $100,000 in their savings account that they could actually liquidate (with a check or cash withdrawal) to pay for a house, except maybe people like the Rockefellers and Waltons.
Metope:
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in Norway, a loan/mortgage doesn't equal a credit card or credit. I don't even know what having good credit means, I have a MasterCard that I never really use and that's about it, most people here use Debit cards as their default. If you need any type of loan, your bank will assess your income, current other loans you may have and anything that might affect your personal economy in general, and figure out if it's feasible for you to deal with the loan.
LookingIn:
--- Quote from: Skewbrow on 18 Dec 2013, 10:58 ---
--- Quote from: Papersatan on 03 Nov 2013, 18:06 ---WRT US pricing I'd like to point out that:
some goods are priced before they reach a store (clothing and books come to mind)
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Are you really saying that a bookstore (or clothing store) in the US has no say in how much they charge for a book or an item of clothing? That's not how I thought the free market works, but whatever - surely you know this better than I do. I just would have thought the store buys in stuff at whatever bulk price they can negotiate, and then charge whatever they see fit.
My culture shock things about US (IIRC):
* You couldn't buy stationery at a mall bookstore (they would advertise marital aids on yellow pages though)
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It depends on the store you go to. The boutique stores and the higher end used book stores don't sell anything but books but the lower priced, "cheap" and big chain book stores do sell stationary alongside other non-book items.
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* You could buy stationery, items of personal hygiene and candy at a pharmacy (aka a drug store)
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Over the last 135 years pharmacies had to expand their sales to include food and personal hygiene products along with first aid supplies and prescriptions to stay in business. They have cut back on some of their non-medicinal sales stuff, many no longer are also ice cream parlors.
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* These people actually use bank cheques for paying utility bills and for shopping? Is this like the 70s or something?
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There are many, many, many people who don't have a computer or who aren't computer savy or don't have an online bank account who have to rely on paying their bills by check. [/list]
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