Credit score shenanigans

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (according to a http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-25/consumers-given-different-credit-scores-than-lenders-cfpb-says.html report by Bloomberg News) has found that in about one case out of 5, your credit score that one of the credit rating agencies tells you is not the same as the score they tell a lender you have.

The story does not say whether the scores given to creditors are usually lower than the same person’s score given to a lender, but the implication is that that is the case:

Specifically, the bureau found that one in five consumers would likely receive a ‘meaningfully different’ score than their lender, potentially resulting in harm to those consumers. At the same time, consumers are unlikely to know about the discrepancy

The story continues:

‘Consumers who have reviewed their own score may expect a certain price from a lender, may waste time and effort applying for loans they are not qualified for, or may accept offers that are worse than they could get,’ according to the study.

 

Of course, if you come to Kamaaina Loan, we won’t ask your credit score, and you’ll qualify for a pawn loan on exactly the same basis as everybody else, whether you are a zillionaire hocking a gold Rolex or a construction worker between jobs raising gas money on his (temporarily unneeded) air compressor.

 

 

 

 

We have regular stuff for sale

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One shade of gray

One shade of gray

Last week we mentioned that we have weird stuff for sale, for example, an irradiated dime. But we also have good regular stuff. More regular stuff than weird stuff, really.

For example, for just $24.99, you can get a nice pre-owned pair of Oakley Flak shades, gray lenses on gloss black frames, in a case.

 

 

 

 

 

He shoulda texted

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You may have missed a  funny story in Friday’s Maui News, because it was buried at the end of an unfunny story about a pedophile.

According to police, Damien Black failed as an armed robber because the employee couldn’t read his demand letter . . . Police said previously that, because of poor penmanship, the employee was unable to read the note. The suspect became frustrated and ran off, police said.

It is not clear from the report whether he was trying to get drugs or money, but either way, it was a bad idea, badly executed.

If you need fast cash, much easier to bring your stuff down to Kamaaina Loan, where a friendly pawnbroker will help you. And you won’t have to write anything except your name certifying that the stuff isn’t stolen and that you agree to the contract.

 

Will gold go up or down?

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Yes.

But we have no way to tell which it will be. The folks at Lear Capital confess uncertainty, too, but they have produced an infographic that shows the relative movements of gold, silver, stocks, inflation and national debt during presidential administrations. (For sure, gold never stays the same, it is always either up or down, like the grand old Duke of Kent in the nursery song.)

These are hardly the only indexes that matter (money supply growth is always interesting), but for what it’s worth, here it is.

Bring us your gold

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We will buy it for top price.

Don’t have any gold? This is the time of year when Maui produces its own gold.

Maui’s gold

 

Pawn 101: Lucky we pawn on Maui

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Not needed at our pawn shop

This past week’s episode of “Hard Core Pawn,” the reality show shot in Detroit featured this http://cleverrealitytv.com/2012/09/16/hardcore-pawn-94-news-flash-pawn-shops-sell-your-stuff-les-finds-a-ruby-in-the-rough-a-muscular-woman-rock-em-sock-em-robots-and-crazy-comes-in-all-colors-in-detroit/incident:

A guy then went up to Rich’s window complaining about a generator he bought less than 12 hours ago from the shop. Rich said the thing was ‘as-is’ and there was nothing he could do about it. The guy was very big and loud. Rich was arguing with the guy and Les was watching the confrontation. Rich was pissed off more than usual at this guy and he went to go out front. The customer ripped off he jacket and got ready to maul Rich and his goatee of death. The big security guards were holding the customer back. Les went outside to talk to the guy to try and help. Les said he would check out the generator and then had a repair man fix it. The guy was happy with the end result.

(From the Clever Reality website.)

To be clear, that was Detroit Rich, not Big Rich of Market Street.

Kamaaina Loan doesn’t even have security guards. No need on North Market Street.

The “as-is” sale policy is the same everywhere among the nation’s 13,000-plus pawnshops. That applies to items coming in as well as going out.

If you  bring in, say, a computer or a cellphone, to sell or to get a loan on, you’ll  be asked to turn it on, and, if necessary, enter your password.

You’d be surprised, maybe, how many people bring in a dead cellphone without a charger and expect to get money for it.

Charge ’em up at home or bring your charger with you. (And why can’t you just plug it in to the USB port on the computer on the counter? Because that’s a good way to infect our system with computer viruses.)

 

 

Real-life drama in Wailuku

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While we were busy getting ready for, shooting and then following up on the Kamaaina Loan reality TV show, a different real-life drama was working itself out around the corner:

http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-Cover-Story-i-2012-09-13-76963.113117-Mismanagement-Allegations-May-Doom-The-Wailuku-Main-Street-Association-And-Change-Our-Small-Towns-But-That-Might-Be-A-Good-Thing.html

Are we having fun yet?

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James Lileks’ blog The Bleat mentions Candy Corn flavor Oreos.

The mind reels.

I have not noticed Candy Corn Oreos in Hawaii, perhaps it is a Minnesota thing. But I did note “Fun Football-shape Oreos.”

As my father used to say, it doesn’t take much to amuse some people.

And speaking of curiosities,

More fun than a round Oreo?

what’s with backing into parking spaces? I’d say close to a third of local drivers do this. But why?

 

We have weird stuff for sale

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For example, a 1963 silver dime that was irradiated at Oak Ridge.

And why, you ask, would anyone irradiate a dime? Is it still radioactive?

According to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, the dimes were a public relations stunt designed to show visitors how neutron activation created valuable radioisotopes that are used in medicine.

Silver was chosen because, in those days,  people had silver coins in their pockets, and neutron-irradiated silve-109 changed to radioactive silver-110.

Silver-110 has the convenient property of a short half-life — 22 seconds.

Visitors had their dimes put under a Geiger counter to show that they had, indeed, become radioactive. But by the time the tour was over, the radioactivity had declined to almost undetectable levels.

Amazingly, the silver-110 had also transmuted into another element, cadmium-110.

The lab encased the radiodimes in plastic. They are not particularly rare; about 250,000 were irradiated.

These coins are purely collectors’ items. They are no longer radioactive and have no practical use.

Our dime is priced at $9.99. Since it is 90% silver, its metal content is, at today’s price, worth around $5. The other $5 or so is curiosity value.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320980036292&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

An irradiated dime

Pawn 101: Borrowing local vs. national

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In a previous post, we talked about a Kamaaina Loan customer who needed — and got — cash just overnight.

The only way to do this is to deal with a local pawnbroker.

There are Internet pawnbrokers, but it takes a little while to get a loan with them. If you need cash within hours (or on the weekend), then local is your only option. (We are talking here about people who don’t have money to get out of ATMs and suchlike.)

There is a question whether Internet pawnbroking is legal.

Pawnbroking has always been regulated, and in the early days of the United States, regulation was done by cities. The first pawn regulations were passed in New York City about 200 years ago.

As the country grew, and pawnshops grew along with them, in both extent and numbers, the states took over regulation (although cities can impose additional regulation on top of state rules).

Although pawnshops are subject to some national laws (like anti-moneylaundering laws), the Congress has never specifically passed pawn regulations. Unlike banks, which have a choice of seeking a federal or a state charter, pawnshops are all state-controlled.

Or were, until the rise of Internet pawnbroking. There does not appear to be any way an Internet pawnbroker can be in compliance with state regulations. For example, most states prevent taking a pawn pledge out of their jurisdictions during the mandatory hold period. But the essence of an Internet pawn is that you send your gold to an address somewhere else.

It might be that the pawn does not begin until the item arrives at the Internet pawn office, wherever that is, but this theory has not yet been tested in courts.

Something to think about next time you are planning to place your valuable property temporarily in the hands of a pawnbroker.