Banks in Popmundo
In a bank, you can open bank accounts and apply for loans. You earn interest at the end of the game year for money in your bank account. If you take a loan, you must pay weekly installments and interest each week. As in the real world, taking loans is a risky and expensive business.
To open an account or to apply for a loan, you must visit a bank. Once you have got your account or loan, most of your dealings with the bank is done directly on your character page.
If you are, or wish to become, the manager of a bank you should also read the rules on Bank Management which contain additional information on how banks work from a Bank Manager perspective.
City Owned vs. Private Banks
THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Before dealing with any bank please make sure you understand the difference between a city owned and a private bank.
A city owned bank is not allowed to lend people money. A city owned bank is only allowed to safeguard people's savings in regular bank account. This means that city owned banks are SAFE places to store your money.
Private banks are allowed to lend people money. Therefore, any money you store in a private bank might be unavailable to you in case the reserve ratio of that private bank falls below 100%.
Bank accounts
Once you've opened up a bank account somewhere, you can put money into your account and withdraw it whenever you wish. However withdrawing money from the account lessens the amount of interest you gain during that week, even if you put the money back before Sunday.
Interest is calculated weekly, based on the amount that has remained untouched in your account for a full week. Accumulated interest is added to your account annually, at the end of the game year (8 weeks).
The interest rate you get when you open your account cannot be changed by the bank. Feel free to be on the lookout for banks that offer better interest and then move your money to them, but beware of unreliable banks with insufficient funds! If the bank is not keeping a sufficient amount of their money available (not given out as loans) then they can obviously not pay back your money when you come to the bank asking for it. Please make sure to check the financial state and reserve ratio of the bank before putting your money there.
City owned banks are definitely recommended for anyone who wants to make absolutely sure their savings aren't "lost" to other players.
Loans
In order to get a loan, the bank manager (who is another player controlling the bank) must first accept your application. He may choose not to! Characters are known to lose interest in life, drop off the face of the earth for no reason, and sometimes even disappear on a mysterious lake. If the bank manager suspects even remotely that you are in danger of any of these things, he will most certainly not accept your application.
Anyway, let's assume you get your loan. You then immediately get the loan sum added to your character cash. After that you're required to pay the weekly bills of the payment plan in order to slowly pay back the money you owe the bank.
If you fail to pay your weekly installments, you will be reported to the police! Anyone who wants to stay out of jail should make sure to always pay their bills.
The weekly installment you have to pay, and the interest, is fixed at the time when you apply for the loan. The bank cannot change these during the life time of the loan. You can, however, choose to pay back the loan prematurely if you want.
Banks are free to set the interest rate and the number of weeks a loan is to be paid back in however they wish. Make sure you check out more than one bank before taking a loan!
Important difference between loans and accounts
Please note the difference on how bank accounts and loans deal with interest. In both cases, interest is calculated weekly, however loan interest is paid along with your weekly installments according to the payment plan while Bank Account interest is accumulated (interest is not paid on existing interest) and added to your account at the end of the game year.