Loans in Japan

Never have and never will, unless it's a super duper serious matter... Until that happens, I don't think I'll be borrowing any money... LOL, some loan sharks here threaten people to pay them back by throwing paint on the victim's front door or threaten them saying that they'll her their family or something... So, you guys stay out of trouble!

*Hurt, not her... Damn these typos...

I use my credit card for practically everything. Even a drink that costs $1. There's benefits to using the card, but for people that can't control their spending it's a good idea not to use them. No problems so far.

Student loans in the UK are now f*$king compulsory since everyone needs to pay £3000+ for their tuition now and you have to cover other costs for living.

Luckly this mean all these loans are interest free and you only start paying once you have a job.

I bought the the very same laptop I'm using to communicate with you fine people. But it also means I have a £6000 debt + a £1000 overdraft streatched to the limit and I'm just reaching the halfway point toward graduating.
*plays Cry Me a River in the background

Yup... Just one student loan, but from my university, and it's for the tablet PC I'm using currently. Best investment ever.

Being a student in the UK i have a student loan however i am lucky enough to have parents footing the tuition fee part of the loan at £3000 per year.

Also because i didnt move away to go to university i still live at home and dont have much in the way of expenses.

So i have the abiility to leave uni and pay back all of the loan they give me as soon as i graduate leaving my with no debt.

However over the past few months ive seriously been considering spending some of it on a mac/software/camera lenses in order to learn more in my spare time that will hopefully help me in the future in getting a job.

Id like to think that if i did spend it that i could use the equipment i buy to make money back through various ways, however im still not sure about it.

Reading your story has given me hope that it can be done though so we will see :D

Back on the subject of loans in general, the TV is full of ad's for loans. It makes me anoyed when i see loan companies offering loans to help pay off other loans etc. And people actually fall for this crap...

I live off cash and debit card much like you Danny, i dont intend to ever live off credit, my parents brought me up to be sensible with money and i am.

There's no such thing as student loans in Belgium. Everyone can go to college or university. It depends on the salary of your parents, if it doesn't make the limit you have to pay a lot less then other students with more income (still, the entrance fee for students with high income is pretty small too).

I'm quite shocked actually to hear things like this happening in countries like the USA and UK. Isn't education a basic need that everyone should be able to get ?

I started as a student in the U.K the year they decided to change all the rules and make us pay more :s.

Currently i have 2 loans, one for the tuition at £3070 a year and another for living expenses at £3000 a year.... my course is 4 years long, you do the math.

Needless to say i'll have alot to pay back when i finish :(.

talking about loan.. i might be picking up loan for my comiket trip this dec.. man =.=!

i try to avoid loans as much as possible, because school is free over here (university/college's) you dont pay up. But you can loan over 200 thousand dollars over here and just skip town, seriously, alot of people loan cash from a school-funding program by the government and all the people that borrow the cash just move over-seas and never return. Clean Break.

But I have to consider a loan eventually, cause school cost in italy and japan, hafta get my masters in design and still wondering about the place.

I haven't had to experience the power of loans yet, and hope I never do.

I haven't touched a loan till now, but was a first-hand witness of what happens if you don't pay on time. especially credit cards. Debit cards are much sfer in Singapore; it sort of takes away the urge to spend i you know you're depleting your cash in bank to pay for stuff. And don't get me started on interest payments.

I can't seem to accept the term "loan" without some negative perception in my mind and heart.

For me it is something along the lines of "We end you this or that amount of money graciously, but *Sudden, dramatic change of tone* if you forget to pay back once in awhile, we shall open the Gates of Hell and engulf you whole as well as your cherished family and you shall suffer utmost pain!!"

*Shudders uncontrollably*

Please, no loans for me, thank you. I'm fine without them now.

*lend (naturally)

(And no, the previous comment wasn't sarcastic)

Wow D_Blade, let me use your loan company -.-

Who is you Intern?

satan?

I cant picture him in glasses, and a white collared shirt with a tie

instead of a pitch fork he is torturing old widows by denying loans

"DENIED! DENIED I SAID!"

Well Zerodyme, when you're quite bankrupt from all sides and that you are unable to do anything to limit that, that your possessions are taken and that you lose even more (family, etc.) you can say that you have already lost your soul in some way.

I know, I know it's too romanced and it's extreme for a case, but it sadly happens to some.
Better have that kind of terrifying thoughts than going for "La-la-la~... I got all the money I want from this loan, so I can spend it all on gambling and repay it all when I turn out millionaire!~" (And of course slowly get blinded by instant money lending and forget about repaying plus adding interests)

It's always fishy when someone you don't know (sometimes even those you know) lend/give you things like that, without a proper reason. Call me paranoid if you want. ;)

Here. there are illegal money lenders called "Ah longs"(loan sharks).
They lend money, but with very high interest rates.
If you dont pay up, they'll splash ur house with red paint, disturb you and your families, beat you up...

as what n1ck mentioned below me, we have loan sharks in singapore as well.

a recent case in singapore has one loan shark runner locking up the house of a debtor with his young son locked in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan_shark

hah @n1ck did any of those loan shark theme got into your soap opera(sinetron)?
we got a lot of this loan shark themed soap opera(drama) here?

yea, they are loan shark with a very high interest too here, i never loan anything though

lol, I think I'll be takng the fifth on this Danny. on a unrelated note, I noticed that you have a otaku.fm banner on the side. I guess the site is up now. congratulations and kudos to you Danny. ^^

never loaned before so don't know bout the interests rate around here. I do use a credit card a lot since I don't like bringing cash with me all the time. I don't overspend though since I always keep my expenses in check and on the budget. ^^

too young fot that XD

The only loan I have is a loan from the government agency that pays out my study financing, only students can loan from that agency against an intrest rate of 0%. Another plus is that you start paying it back after you've finished your study and found a job. ^^ For the rest I hate living in debts, that's why I have a very negative look on credit cards and loan commercials.

Interest rate here are ridiculous. Most Americans would probably do better dealing with a loan shark. Loan sharking is illegal here in the states. What happen is they all went legit and became banks and lending institutions. I'm joking but that is what it often appears to be.

I often think the objective of banks and lending institutions here in the states is to get one started as early as possible and keep them in debt. I'm sure most are aware of the house loan market problems right now. Not a new problem, it's just seeing more attention. America has been a debtor nation and it's just getting worst.

So when I see all the ads and signs in Japan, I hope the Japanese are not doing the same. Don't get me wrong having debt is not a bad thing. When one does ridiculous things like buy a million dollar home and mortgage every penny of it! Well... Yes people are doing that here...

As for me, I do my best to stay with cash and debt card. I do have one credit card that I use from time to time. Mostly I use it for car or hotel reservations. The rate is extremely low as in, single digit low. Of course I have student loan again... ^^; Don't know if I will be able to pay those off as I go through college again or not.

Sounds almost like a universal norm now. College students take out their first loan or use a quite a bit of their loan money to buy a computer. I just did the same since I had to give the laptop back to the company. New IT guys viewed Macs as a security risk, blah blah blah...

College education is so important and we live in a world where it is a necessity to have. It's nice to read that many nations view it in that way. I'm surprised the Japanese don't. Then again, they do have some helpful worker education programs in Japan...

Oddly enough this county is luck for the changes that WWII brought. If we had not had the G.I. Bill after WWII and student loan program would not have been here for us today.

I took out a student loan for my university, while half of my education was paid by scholarships and government assistance. While having student loan it is not considered living in debt because student loans can be paid in period of 10 years. I buy everything on credit card, but always pay it full before end of the month. This way i create my credit history and don't have to carry cash. Even metro fares can be paid by credit card, too bad bus fairs can not be :-(

Ahh 100% Debt Free! I was fortunate and had my credit score ruined at an early age. Now I'm the top 6% of wage earners in the U.S., I don't need a credit card and have removed my self from pre-screened offers. I buy what I want when I can afford it, and because of hard work and saving it's about when ever I feel like it.

The perfect slave is the one who thinks he is free!

-Hendrik
Hehe. No idea. I dont follow up on my local shows/drama.

The only loans I have are student loans which I have a period of about 9 months to pay it all off interest free and 5% interest after...

I like paying for things up front in cash so that there's no strings attached or tempted to use money I don't have and get into debt...

Never loan but I do use my credit card a lot and paid it for next month.

it looks like loan business in japan is lucrative XP

i'm currently looking for a cash card or a debit card which is also accepted internationally and also accepted online. this way i can only spend on only what i have. if ever i can't find a cash card/debit card which fit my needs, i'll get a credit card and only use it maybe once or twice a month ^^;;;;

I have 3 credit cards- 2 that I don't use. Yeah, credit cards can get you making wild purchases especially online. But I like the rebates they come with, i.e. 1% back on all your purchases.

I have no credit cards, thanks to my dad's influence on living traditional life (bit on the frugal side too).

Better if it's a debit card made by a credit card company, such as MasterCard or VISA. On which you can use for online shopping without worrying about damn high interest rates, on which in North America, it broke out an record of 511.29% of APR