2 immigrants in the Bay Area share their perspectives on Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and being first time voters in the elections.

Great. AI/ML is definitely relevant in today's world. Udacity also has a course in participation with Lyft - "Intro to Self Driving Cars". I bet a lot of people will also find that useful.

I totally agree that IF the loan terms are same, then lowest APR would be the winner.

Unfortunately, most people are not financially savvy and unable to make logical financial choices even if they are well educated with good enough incomes. Most of the financial education content emphasizes comparison based on APR (which is correct) but they miss out the impact of loan term and origination fee especially if someone prepays the loan. That's what the article is trying to explain, if the loan terms are different, then don't just make decisions based on APR thinking you'll prepay and save more money with the lower APR loan. Perhaps, the article could've done a better job at explaining the concept.

Thanks for that explanation! I didn't think about prepayment when I wrote my comment.

Based on my understanding, YC doesn't invest in just one company in an industry. They invest in markets and founders. Because they are investing at an early stage, they choose to invest in multiple ones. Startups are tricky and it's really difficult to pick a winner early in a company's lifecycle.

It's an unfortunate situation and city must do something about it. I think of small businesses that may be losing a lot of customers because of this. This is also related to SF's homeless problem. On three separate occasions, I saw homeless people holding smooth running of restaurants hostage to get food or money from the them. In one case, the person walked in and started eating from a customer's plate. The cashier had to intervene and handle the situation (those customers end up leaving and the restaurant didn't charge them).

"the person walked in and started eating from a customer's plate"

Wow. I assume that there was a physical confrontation, and that's why all parties had to leave? How does SFPD react when a diner BTHO of a homeless guy who starts stealing food from him while he's...seated in a restaurant??

1. I should've been more explicit in saying that they only look at credit related behavior. The article shows contributions of various things to their FICO score. 2. there are several things that can't be used to underwrite in the U.S. - http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0347-your-equal-credit-... other variables such as education are fine if they are not a very close proxy of the prohibited variables

How big of a problem is getting an apartment when someone moves to the U.S. as a student or for work?

This is interesting and a good example where credit scores fail.

Credit scores aren't perfect, but that's not a good example. An individual's salary says nothing about their credit-worthiness.

This is true if you are from the country, but if you are a recent immigrant you are treated as though you are a bankrupt.

If credit scores were really based on risk they would look at the default risk of immigrants as a group (maybe using things like country of origin, education level, and job status to fine tune) and start the score to reflect the real risk rather than starting at zero.

There are some laws around what data can be used to underwrite loans. Nationality can't be used, but immigration status can be. http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0347-your-equal-credit-...

You can provide this national origin information voluntarily if you wish. If it means you get a credit score then most people would. The problem right now is all immigrants are treated as they are the highest possible credit risk with no effort made to adjust on the basis of personal circumstances.

You can't do that because it's discriminatory. At the same time, there are many people who can and do cycle in and out of the country and scam creditors.

Would you mind sharing types of services you were not able to get because of credit scores?

Rent, phone, bank account, car, employment. Credit scores are basically used for everything and a a recent immigrant you are considered worse than a bankrupt.

Lack of credit can stand in a way of getting a job?

Yes some employers use credit scores as a screening tool. No score == bad employee!

This is more of an issue for the spouse who is trying to get a job locally.

The intermediary company will be responsible for correctly assessing someone's risk. All the money earned from co-signing could be used to pay off very few that default (just like an insurance.) This model allows more people to access services.