Until recently pensioners in Germany would have found it very difficult to get credit. Collectively, the obstacles placed in the way of applicants are known as "Risikobegrenzung" and they represent a strategy of risk management designed to protect credit providers from bad debt. However, in the past decade, lenders have became increasingly interested in courting this formerly ostracized group. This is because pensioners in Germany (despite many a pessimistic prognosis) still enjoy regular incomes (often from interest payments from their properties). The security offered by property ownership is very reassuring for lenders.
More and more German pensioners are looking to finance their retirement ambitions through credit. This is not surprising when one considers increases in life expectancy and the shifting profile of the population as a whole. In any case it is often hard to find the time during the typical working life to get to do everything one might want to do. Many pensioners feel they deserve a Caribbean cruise or new car to brighten their latter years and the petulance of banks in denying them this is increasingly being swept aside.
For the German Rentner to obtain Kredit he must be able to demonstrate a monthly income. This would clearly need to be sufficient to cover the repayments. Another requirement is Schufa approval, Schufa being the German credit check agency which monitors and regulates all credit transactions in the Federal Republic.
The age of the applicant is nonetheless an important factor from the bank"s perspective when it comes to the crunch. Each Kredit provider considers this along with the sum being applied for and the desired repayment schedule on an individual basis. Even a vigorous Tom Jones (68), for example, would discover that it"s not unusual for old age pensioners to be denied Kredit after their 65th birthday. Normally all monies have to be repaid by the 68th birthday. Of course these policies continue to restrict the financial plans of our venerable hordes and seem odd when so many are living healthily into their 70s and beyond.
With so many "silver surfers" thronging the World Wide Web many are making the motto "Help Yourself "their own and turning to providers of online Kredit. These transfer lower overhead costs directly to their customers and thus allow these applicants to move closer to the realization of their retirement dreams and kiss penury goodbye.
20.2.2008