Author Topic: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!  (Read 8419 times)

paddedhat

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Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« on: October 13, 2015, 03:55:37 PM »
today I heard a radio ad that gave me the urge to scream. It was a local credit union, apparently shilling personal loans. One character, with a young female voice, was gushing over how great the CU was, and how she just got her "first place loan". She then explained (to the interested friend with older male voice) that she took a loan to buy EVERYTHING to furnish her first place, "from the dishes to the big flat screen TV" and gave it the cutesy name of her "first place loan". 

 FFS, the stupidity on this one hurts.

brotatochip

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2015, 04:22:05 PM »
Honestly, I love to hear stories like this.  Consumerism drives our economy, thus driving up the price of stocks from the companies that provide it.  People like to buy things....we like to save and invest in  those companies that make those things.  Financial institutions do sugar coat ideologies but everybody needs to do their homework before taking out loans they cannot afford.  Seriously, the interwebs are full of information about everything.  If people knew how to navigate excel as well as they know how to navigate porn and shop on Amazon,  most households would have a balanced budget.

Goldielocks

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2015, 05:06:51 PM »
hmmm...  I guess "first place loan" is not "First position loan"   as in "first mortgage?"   But rather "my first apartment needs furniture" loan?

Syonyk

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2015, 11:25:52 PM »
The "first place you live you get to decorate all by yourself in your very own style" loan!

**sigh**

paddedhat

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2015, 07:31:02 AM »
The "first place you live you get to decorate all by yourself in your very own style" loan!

**sigh**

Amazingly enough, mine had a whole lot of "borrowed" plastic milk crates, an old church pew for a couch and all kinds of scrounged up free stuff. As you might imagine, this carefully cultivated look does not require a "first place loan".

In 52 year on the planet, I am guilty of borrowing money to "decorate" once, a couple of years ago. A new leather love seat, and two matching chairs for $935, delivered. The catch was that you needed to open up a new store CC to make the deal work. I did the deal, paid the balance as soon as it came. Then waited for the new CC to get credited to my credit files before cancelling it.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2015, 07:36:31 AM by paddedhat »

MgoSam

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2015, 08:53:04 AM »
I know someone that's commented on how that now that I own my own place I should consider getting good furniture. My comment was, "Sure, feel free to buy whatever you like and bring it over. I'll find a place for it." The person sputtered and tried to find a polite way of saying that she intended for me to buy it.

FatCat

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2015, 09:07:24 AM »
I like how the actress was normalizing the behavior in the ad. The ad is targeted at young people who feel independent and ready to make big decisions for their new adult life. The easiest target for consumer loans.

Syonyk

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2015, 09:32:59 AM »
I know someone that's commented on how that now that I own my own place I should consider getting good furniture. My comment was, "Sure, feel free to buy whatever you like and bring it over. I'll find a place for it." The person sputtered and tried to find a polite way of saying that she intended for me to buy it.

My youngest brother & I are going back and forth on this since we're both in the process of buying houses.  He's planning to drop... oh, ballpark $30k on matching furniture.  I think a "muted grey with some splashes of color" or something like that.

We're planning to really, really splurge (for us), and replace our ancient couch and futon (both of which we got for free) with a newer leather sectional couch.  Mostly because with kids, we want something easier to clean, and the current couch is ancient, uncomfortable, and being a fold-a-bed, weighs roughly a ton and a half.  Oh, and I plan to buy a few more nice oak bookshelves, because cheap bookshelves aren't worth the cost if you can afford something nicer.  We'll have our house paid off in a few years.  Not quite sure about him. :/

MgoSam

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2015, 09:44:20 AM »
Oh, and I plan to buy a few more nice oak bookshelves, because cheap bookshelves aren't worth the cost if you can afford something nicer.  We'll have our house paid off in a few years.  Not quite sure about him. :/

I agree on nice bookshelves. I would like to get some once I figure out everything else. I have a bookshelf that I purchased like 15 years ago that was cheap then, and hasn't gotten better with age. Right now it's just a place to hold books and other things. Eventually I'll get something nicer.

shadowmoss

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2015, 11:19:11 AM »
Right now it's just a place to hold books and other things. Eventually I'll get something nicer.

And just what else are book shelves supposed to be?

/devil's advocate hat

It just seems funny to me that book shelves would be dissed for being just a place to hold books and other things.

Syonyk

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2015, 11:23:56 AM »
Many book shelves are not rated to actually hold a shelf full of books.  I've had quite a few shelf failures on cheap book shelves... :/

Apples

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2015, 12:20:49 PM »
Right now it's just a place to hold books and other things. Eventually I'll get something nicer.

And just what else are book shelves supposed to be?

/devil's advocate hat

It just seems funny to me that book shelves would be dissed for being just a place to hold books and other things.

I'm still in the "bookshelf that holds things" phase.  It was cheap furniture bought for me as a kid, and it sags in the middle.  It also has some pretty deep scratches and blobs of random color on it.  It's also not real wood.  I'm really looking forward 10-15 years to a good, solid piece of furniture to hold our books. 

onehair

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2015, 12:24:31 PM »
My credit union offers Holiday loans for Christmas along with the Christmas Club. so they've got you if you're a spender or a saver lol.  I confess I had taken Vacation loans in the past...

MgoSam

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2015, 12:25:17 PM »
Right now it's just a place to hold books and other things. Eventually I'll get something nicer.

And just what else are book shelves supposed to be?

/devil's advocate hat

It just seems funny to me that book shelves would be dissed for being just a place to hold books and other things.

I'm still in the "bookshelf that holds things" phase.  It was cheap furniture bought for me as a kid, and it sags in the middle.  It also has some pretty deep scratches and blobs of random color on it.  It's also not real wood.  I'm really looking forward 10-15 years to a good, solid piece of furniture to hold our books.

What I meant is that if someone tried to shake it or anything, it likely wouldn't shift noticably and/or break. The back of the bookshelf looks good, but it's just a paper insert, it isn't actually wood or anything.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2015, 01:14:22 PM »
This reminds me of a friend who was always having problems with money being tight... he married a woman who had a fully paid-for studio apartment in a very HCOL area (worth something like a quarter mil). So he decided that the best course of action was to sell the paid-for studio and move somewhere more suburban and buy a much bigger place worth twice as much with a much longer commute (her studio happened to be 1/2 mile from his job at the time). And of course he decided instead of rolling over all the money into a huge down payment, he was going to take a bunch out and buy all new nice furniture, carpets, etc. etc.

I guess he at least got a better interest rate taking it out of his mortgage than he would with a personal furniture loan, but still. Ugh!

eyesonthehorizon

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #15 on: October 15, 2015, 06:45:07 AM »
Many book shelves are not rated to actually hold a shelf full of books.  I've had quite a few shelf failures on cheap book shelves... :/
Syonyk's dead-on - maaaany "bookshelves" in production are meant to hold a couple conversation-piece books and then a vase or a piece of other memorabilia per-shelf, rather than a library, because they're about showing off your stuff rather than storing things you read. Just look at the photos on the packaging.

[...]
What I meant is that if someone tried to shake it or anything, it likely wouldn't shift noticably and/or break. The back of the bookshelf looks good, but it's just a paper insert, it isn't actually wood or anything.
I managed to get shelves during the final closing of all the Borders' Books chain in the US, so mine are definitely intended to hold a full shelf. But these things are constructed with a light piece of veneer board at the back, not real wood. Really it's just there to keep your books from scuffing the wall, or to look nice for bookshop customers.

MgoSam

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #16 on: October 15, 2015, 08:08:11 AM »
This reminds me of a friend who was always having problems with money being tight... he married a woman who had a fully paid-for studio apartment in a very HCOL area (worth something like a quarter mil). So he decided that the best course of action was to sell the paid-for studio and move somewhere more suburban and buy a much bigger place worth twice as much with a much longer commute (her studio happened to be 1/2 mile from his job at the time). And of course he decided instead of rolling over all the money into a huge down payment, he was going to take a bunch out and buy all new nice furniture, carpets, etc. etc.

I guess he at least got a better interest rate taking it out of his mortgage than he would with a personal furniture loan, but still. Ugh!

Goes to show that just giving someone that's not good with money, money, won't solve their problems. Instead, they may create brand new ones.

Helvegen

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #17 on: October 15, 2015, 09:38:30 AM »
I remember back when a friend of mine got his first professional (but not insanely high paying or anything) job out of college. He was deep in credit card and student loan debt, but first thing he did was move out of his parent's house and buy $10k of household furnishings on credit.

Beaker

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #18 on: October 15, 2015, 11:29:59 AM »
Many book shelves are not rated to actually hold a shelf full of books.  I've had quite a few shelf failures on cheap book shelves... :/

Yep, I've got shelves like that. They actually started sagging within about two months, and just keep getting worse. I took it as a sign that I should quit storing books that I can just borrow from the library in the unlikely event that I want to read them again.

Kaspian

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #19 on: October 15, 2015, 11:30:44 AM »
Have they given up the use of "starter home" yet? What about "forever home"?  I know a lot of people who bought "forever homes" (instead of a plain, old "house") who no longer live in them and regret the purchase.

MrsPete

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #20 on: October 17, 2015, 10:37:22 AM »
today I heard a radio ad that gave me the urge to scream. It was a local credit union, apparently shilling personal loans. One character, with a young female voice, was gushing over how great the CU was, and how she just got her "first place loan". She then explained (to the interested friend with older male voice) that she took a loan to buy EVERYTHING to furnish her first place, "from the dishes to the big flat screen TV" and gave it the cutesy name of her "first place loan". 

 FFS, the stupidity on this one hurts.
At first I thought, "So what?"  But then I realized you weren't talking about a mortgage, just a loan for household goods!  Wow, that's a new one. 

Rezdent

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #21 on: October 17, 2015, 11:02:41 AM »
Not surprised that this came from a credit union.  I mean, isn't the name kind of telling?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #22 on: October 17, 2015, 01:47:16 PM »
Not surprised that this came from a credit union.  I mean, isn't the name kind of telling?

All credit union customers are shareholders in the credit union. When one takes out a loan, it's basically borrowing from all the others. It is somewhat cannibalistic to encourage people to do that for frivolous reasons.

nobodyspecial

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #23 on: October 17, 2015, 04:34:37 PM »
All credit union customers are shareholders in the credit union.
True

Quote
When one takes out a loan, it's basically borrowing from all the others. It is somewhat cannibalistic to encourage people to do that for frivolous reasons.
Not necessarily, credit unions can trade money/loans like any other bank.


Mr Dumpster Stache

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #24 on: October 17, 2015, 06:17:44 PM »
The local credit union here runs Pandora adds along the following lines:

"Last year I decided to save some money and drive to *somewhere or another, don't remember* for our vacation. Our car broke down! This year I pledge to give my family the vacation they deserve!" Then the spiel for the personal loan and how great it is.

"I tried to save some money by installing a sprinkler system in my yard. Now my yard looks like a mud pit and I almost ran over the dog. I pledge to not take on more than I can handle." Get a loan!

It's like somebody at the credit union saw a link to MMM, read a few blogs, shuddered in horror at the specter of the peasants learning financial literacy, and immediately began writing anti-mustachian radio commercials.

MgoSam

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #25 on: October 17, 2015, 06:21:16 PM »
Not surprised that this came from a credit union.  I mean, isn't the name kind of telling?

All credit union customers are shareholders in the credit union. When one takes out a loan, it's basically borrowing from all the others. It is somewhat cannibalistic to encourage people to do that for frivolous reasons.

So true, and it reminds me of "It's a Wonderful Life."

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #26 on: October 17, 2015, 10:25:34 PM »
Quote from: TheGrimSqueaker
When one takes out a loan, it's basically borrowing from all the others. It is somewhat cannibalistic to encourage people to do that for frivolous reasons.
Not necessarily, credit unions can trade money/loans like any other bank.
They can buy and sell securities that include loans made by other institutions. They can also sell loans that they write. Neither of those activities is predatory at all. Nor is the fact that they can only sell loans to people who have accounts there and who are by definition shareholders of their company.

However, when an institution tries to deliberately inveigle its shareholders into borrowing money for a frivolous purpose, I call it not just predatory but cannibalistic.

If a bank were to make the same pitch to its customers, encouraging them to borrow so as to spend frivolously and get into debt, it's just a bank being its usual predatory self. We expect banks to act in the interest of the shareholders, and we recognize that because although some of a bank's customers most likely do hold shares in the bank, most do not. Owning shares in the bank isn't a necessary precondition of doing business with it.

With a credit union, the only way to get a loan from it is to be a member, and hence a shareholder. So the pitch described by the original poster boils down to: "you've bought shares in this company, so we're rewarding you for that by pressuring you to sign up for predatory loans that benefit other shareholders including you". It's an extra level of sick. Any shareholder who falls for it is doing the financial equivalent of chopping off, grilling, and eating their own foot when they have perfectly good food in their refrigerator.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #27 on: October 17, 2015, 10:32:53 PM »
Any shareholder who falls for it is doing the financial equivalent of chopping off, grilling, and eating their own foot when they have perfectly good food in their refrigerator.

Especially cruel when you consider that feet need low, slow cooking like a braise, and not a hot sear on a grill. Tragic!

E16sean

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #28 on: October 18, 2015, 03:57:18 AM »
A local credit union has a sign in this window with "Fund your dreams" and a tagline of "154 times cheaper than a payday loan"...

It's good to offer an alternative, but how did they come up with name?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #29 on: October 18, 2015, 05:41:28 PM »
Any shareholder who falls for it is doing the financial equivalent of chopping off, grilling, and eating their own foot when they have perfectly good food in their refrigerator.

Especially cruel when you consider that feet need low, slow cooking like a braise, and not a hot sear on a grill. Tragic!

I'm disturbed by the fact you know this.

jba302

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #30 on: October 18, 2015, 06:12:26 PM »
I know someone that's commented on how that now that I own my own place I should consider getting good furniture. My comment was, "Sure, feel free to buy whatever you like and bring it over. I'll find a place for it." The person sputtered and tried to find a polite way of saying that she intended for me to buy it.

Seeing that you live in MN, I would not be surprised if that person either exploded immediately from the confrontation, or bought you some furniture out of guilt.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Another new low, and from a credit union, no less!
« Reply #31 on: October 18, 2015, 06:14:55 PM »

Especially cruel when you consider that feet need low, slow cooking like a braise, and not a hot sear on a grill. Tragic!

I'm disturbed by the fact you know this.

Mustachians should always be prepared to cook unpopular cuts of meat, you can get real bargains... ;-)