Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    
    	Around Boston I have found that E U Wurlitzer and a few others
    are pushing (softly) Ben Charge, it's a revolving charge account
    at 1.5 % per month, they are looking for 3 years steady employment,
    stable abode, income > $18K and normal credit rating checks.
    
    	Save plan loans are available at 10% against SAVE plan savings,
    up to 90% of what's in the account, up to 4 year term, payroll
    deduction for repayments, etc. 

    	DCU have 9% for loans against shares (savings), 10.5% against
    (dec) stock, 16.25% against zip.

    	Other info from others ?
    
    	Reg
    

    Hey I like the way you referenced note .1 from .0.  What ever happened
    to good old causality?
    
    Seriously, the Save thing looks tempting as I have some finances
    there.  Too tempting :-)
    
    Todd.
    

    I currently have a Bencharge account with Wurlitzers and every month
    I look at the interest I pay and WHEW! it's steep....
        
    The convenience is rather nice though...
    
    dave

    Hate to disillusion you all but I do pay cash for everything.  If
    I can't afford it I don't buy it.

    len.
    

    Re: .4
    
    Obviously, Len, they're paying you too much! :-)
    
    Seriously, I too pay cash for all my gear.  Unfortunately, that
    means right now that my MIDI studio is limited to a TR707, Juno-106,
    and an MSQ-100, plus some obsolete stuff I don't care to mention
    :-), but still works quite well.
    
    I must admit the temptation to go wild and sell my soul for technology
    comes and goes regularly.  Fortunately I have a wife who thumps
    me back to reality so I buy only what I really need (eliminates
    impulse buying) and something that I'll be happy with for a while.
    
    		Derek

    I always pay cash too.  That's why I'm looking at DX-100's and CZ-101's
    and not DX-7's and Mirage's.
    
    Todd.
    

    I spent 10 years doing consumer finance before coming to DEC.* Lemme
    tell ya, musical instruments are not the favorite commodity to lend
    money on. Chances are, you'd get a personal loan with no collateral
    as fast as you'd get one by putting up your new axe. Why? The things
    are too portable and next to impossible to repo if you stop paying.
    
    Probably the best bet for someone bent on borrowing is the "passbook
    loan" where you borrow against your own cash. Net rate usually turns
    out in the 2 - 3% APR area. Of course, if you already have the
    cash, why would you borrow? Plenty of reasons! Tax breaks, "forced"
    savings, ect.
    
    Me? I paid cash for the whole schlemiel. DX, Mirage, sequencer,
    drum machine, bass, amp, sax. I just refuse to borrow money for a
    hobby. 
    
    Edd
    
  * Disclaimer - Consumer lending laws are dynamic. Please do not construe
                 anything I've said as "gospel". It was all quoted from
                 memory and may not be the policy of any particular
                 lender. Consult your bank for details.
    

    	Paying cash for everything is *WONDERFUL*, I wish I could have
    bought my house that way.  By putting (or just leaving) money in the
    bank it accumulates and grows by a *WONDERFUL* mechanism called
    "earning interest", so you actually get to take out more than you put
    in.  Electronic (including, but not limited to musical) devices are
    *WONDERFUL*, because they are on a cost reduction curve.  This means
    that a year or two from now (when you have saved enough) it will be
    possible to buy more features/functions/performance for a given number
    of dollars (actually, if you have saved there will be more dollars
    available due to the WONDERRFUL interest mechanism mentioned above).
    Bankers are *W*ND*RF*L* too, they borrow money (they call it,
    "accepting deposits", or something like that) from people who want to
    accumulate enough money to pay cash, and lend it to the people who are
    too impatient to save (lend money to said bankers) at two or three
    times the interest rate that they pay.  This is truelly *W*ND*RF*L*
    because it enables the banks to accumulate vast assets so that if the
    savers want to "withdraw" before the borrowers repay, there is a
    sufficient buffer.  They can also do other things with these assets,
    like buying prime real estate in down town areas and building  *W*ND*RF*L*
    concrete and glass structures with their names cast in stone over the
    entrances.  Also, when farmers want to buy *W*ND*RF*LLY* complicated
    machines that they can't pay cash for, the banks are able to lend them
    money so that they can use them for a couple of weeks a year and then
    let them rust in the field for the next fifty years.  Sometimes the
    government will pay the farmers to not do whatever it is that they
    thought they were going to need the machines for (growing food, I
    think).  This is a *W*ND*RF*L* scheme, though I seem to be drifting....
    ....wasn't that a *W*ND*RF*L* note about drifting off key in the MUSIC
    notes file ? 
     
	Reg
        

    Is it Friday afternoon?  Did I miss something?
    
    I know I'm a fool for not borrowing my way into oblivion, but I
    just don't like owing money unless I absolutely have to.  I did
    not, for example, pay cash for my car.
    
    len.
    

    
    	No Len, its monday morning and I had the sun beating down on
    the back of my head yesterday, it seems to have caused an attack of
    mental diarrhea.  The fact is that I admire your self control in being
    able to wait until you have all the $$$s together before getting the
    toys, it certainly makes for more reasoned decisions.

    	Reg