Ok, people have explained Shadowrun's "cashless" society pretty well, but what about credit? Specifically credit cards.

With a credstick that contains instant access to the user's banking accounts, is credit still around? I'd say yes - the monetry gains of having a society in debt would be staggering.

But HOW would it work? If you can access bank details instantly, bad debtors would find that their line of credit would run dry before their card would be approved.

I'm thinking _good debtors_ (Ie: those who make the interest payments but have a permanent "chunk" on their card/s, thereby maintaining the cycle of endless debt) may have multiple "cards", thinking of identities or "accounts" open with each credit institution on the users credstick.
As long as that person's minimum back balance doesn't fall below a certain point, the interest payments are met and only "Approved" (non-competitive) credit lines are established and maintained on one identity, Joe Public can splash out on a genuine leather seat that's normally out of his means.

Thoughts?

-Tir

It would work pretty simple: instead of display how much cash you have, it would show how much cash you have plus how much credit you have. People spend more than they really have, and end up living in debt. Not unlike today in some places.

[/edit]For those with legitimate SINs and bank accounts and stuff, that is.

I think there was a part of NeoAnarchists Guide to Real Life that addressed Credsticks, Accounts, and Lending and Overdrafts apparently it is still possible to overdraft and the back would cover you with an automatic high interest loan if they deemed you a reasonable risk rather than prevent the transaction from happening.

Im fairly sure that something along those lines was mentioned in SSG at some point.

I assume that it would be the same as today. The credstick is just a tool for storing account information. It is popular simply because it is a more versitile and more secure tool than the currently standard magnetic-striped cards. Certified credsticks, on the other hand, are like the smart-money cards available today. They actually store their balances on the stick.