[AskEurope] Fellow Europeans, what is the aspect of USA lifestyle that surprises you the most? - eviltoast

First of all, let’s try to avoid American-bashing, and stay respectful to everyone.

I’ll start: for me it’s the tipping culture. Especially nowadays, with the recent post on !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world with the 40% tip, it just seems so weird to me to have to pay extra just so that menu prices can stay low.

  • dot20@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you have any outstanding debts, that’s recorded in a registry (BKR), so the banks won’t give you a loan (you won’t even be able to buy a phone on credit).

    If you have no outstanding debts, you are not registered at BKR, so the banks will give you a loan according to their internal formulas (e.g. if you don’t have a high salary you won’t get a €1 million loan, but you might be able to get a €300.000 one).

    So I guess it’s like a negative credit system: if you’re not credit-worthy, lenders will know (due to being BKR-registered), and otherwise you’re assumed to be credit-worthy (in accordance to your salary).