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From the IMF blog post[1]: > Even a well-paid expatriate moving to the United States can be caught in the conundrum of not getting a credit card for lack of cr
by cube00 5y ago
From the IMF blog post[1]:
> Even a well-paid expatriate moving to the United States can be caught in the conundrum of not getting a credit card for lack of credit record, and not having a credit record for lack of credit cards.
> Fintech resolves the dilemma by tapping various nonfinancial data: the type of browser and hardware used to access the internet, the history of online searches and purchases.
I enjoy the framing of this; give us the keys to the kingdom and we'll give you even more credit (to get yourself further into debt!)
Of course it won't stop there, better pay down that mortgage before you search or buy the "wrong" thing if you want to keep your house (they won't take it outright, just raise the interest rate on your loan because you now represent a higher risk based on "new information")
[1] https://blogs.imf.org/2020/12/17/what-is-really-new-in-fintech/ https://blogs.imf.org/2020/12/17/what-is-really-new-in-finte...
- jart 5y agoThe fact that the IMF thinks your choice of operating system should impact your creditworthiness is something I've been warning people about for months because it shows why we need cosmopolitan software. Since it's nice to have the ability to pick up and move our apps elsewhere should we discover we're using the "wrong" one. Because political winds change, but good engineering endures. https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoTime to link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_tag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_tag and because of where it came from, maybe to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontheist_Quakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontheist_Quakers
- nanis 5y ago> The fact that the IMF thinks your choice of operating system should impact your creditworthiness is something At some point in the past or maybe in another universe, a well known accommodation booking site might or might not have been offering better rates to people using Linux than OSX. Not confirmed, obviously.
- fxtentacle 5y agoI think it's the other way around. People who demonstrate that they have lots of money by showing off their "OS X" user agent get the tourist rebate. BTW, I also believe that flight prices magically increase on iOS...
- ivirshup 5y agoI think this counts as confirmed (it was kayak/ orbitz)[1]. Pretty sure I heard one of the engineers talking about it in an interview too? [1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488...
- bakuninsbart 5y agoI've tested this multiple times with friends who use an IPhone, and indeed I got better rates on Android. Might do course also been other aspects involved, maybe they analysed my data realised I'm a penny pincher.
- 35mm 5y agoIt’s well known amongst marketing people that targeting iOS users results in ‘better leads’
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- derefr 5y agoI think the thought there is just that STEM nerds tend to have stable high-paid jobs and thus good credit, and so OSes/browsers that nobody but nerds use / would tolerate using, are signals of having good credit.
- pc86 5y agoThis just sounds like including income in credit score with extra steps.
- derefr 5y agoIncome, or even 6mo income history, doesn't predict how likely you'll be to get another job if you lose your job. What lenders really want to know is how in-demand you are in the market, and so what they should predict as the "floor" on your future income. Add to that how likely someone with your personality-type is to just decide to take a few months/years off between jobs living off of savings, and you've got a heuristic nearly as predictive of loan-repayment as all the rest of the information lenders use today put together.
- zionic 5y agoThat is a horrifying idea... eliminate fixed rate interest mortgages and the banks can target and de-home people at will.
- forgingahead 5y agoTo be fair, the fixed interest rate mortgage is uniquely American, and is not seen in most other countries of the world. It's a great deal if you can get it! But obviously someone has to backstop the other end of this deal, and in the US it's basically the government.
- Sanzig 5y agoWe have fixed interest rate mortgages in Canada, but the fixed rate is only valid for a specific period (typically 5 years). After this, the mortgage needs to be either renewed for another term at then-current rates, or transferred to a new lender.
- pc86 5y agoWe have these in the US too, they're called adjustable-rate mortgages.
- sgerenser 5y agoYes, but hardly anyone uses them because fixed rate mortgages are so much better of a deal in most cases. The government owned guarantors (Fannie/Freddie mainly) are the main reason that 30 year mortgages can be offered at such low rates in the U.S.
- pc86 5y agoMy point was that the things they're calling fixed-rate mortgages are in fact not fixed-rate mortgages.
- forgingahead 5y ago
- brundolf 5y agoThe credit catch-22 is real, but my company is tackling it in a way that's up-front and doesn't invade people's privacy (and we're hiring!): https://www.self.inc/ https://www.self.inc/
- lsllc 5y agoThe quote is not entirely true, you can get a letter of good credit (i.e. a reference) from your bank in your home country. it won't get you a $25K credit line, but it'll get you up and running with the basics.