Paying the bills

[kristof65]

True enough, but banks would rather not have to repossess or skip trace the ships in the first place, if they don't have to.

I wonder if that's really true. A ship is a pretty valuable commodity. If the bank repossesses it, they get to keep everything you'd paid so far and put it up for resale at full price.

They have expenses to go with tracking it down, repossessing it, storing it and selling it. It's a pain in the arse in most cases. If they know where the ship is, can retrieve it rather cheaply and know for certain they can turn around and immediately sell it, then they are more apt to repossess it. Otherwise, it's a major issue.

Now, there are surely predatory lenders out there who will act that way, but as a general rule, most banks will simply want the monthly payment.

Mmm. And I'm considering an alteration to the "older ships" rule where it goes in one hundred year increments rather than ten year increments. I like the idea that ships are made to last and that you might pick up a ship with hundreds of years of history behind it.

100 yr increments seems a bit extreme to me, but I admit that 20, or even 50 yr increments sounds appealing to me. YMMV, though.

 

[alex_greene]

This is one reason why older starships tend to be the ones that ship captains go for. They might be a lot more creaky and grimy, but they're cheaper to run and forfeiting's less likely when the monthly pay's lower - or, in the case of ships over 40 years old, non-existent.

Alternate places to purchase used and repo'ed Starships include auctions, and of course on the scrapyard, like that scene at the end of the episode "Out of Gas" in Firefly, where Malcolm Reynolds first laid eyes on his beloved Serenity.

The exact specifications might not be so important, to a Referee, as the complications that can arise in the process of arranging for the monthly mortgage payment, getting papers readied for annual inspection, Imperial tax auditing of the ship's accounts and so on and so forth.

Of course, knowing that a given cargo run cannot possibly raise the cash to pay for a forthcoming mortgage payment is what will drive the captain to go looking for a Patron for a more lucrative job - one which would involve putting the characters into the thick of an adventure.

It's when you hear the Captain start saying lines like "We're close to gone out here. This job goes south; there may well not be another," that you know you're doing it right as a Ref.

 

[lurker]

How about a code that needs to be entered directly into the transponder periodically by a bank official who only does it after verifying payments are current? Don't enter the right code and the transponder indicates that the ship is to be detained.

 

[AndrewW]

How about a code that needs to be entered directly into the transponder periodically by a bank official who only does it after verifying payments are current? Don't enter the right code and the transponder indicates that the ship is to be detained.

Then you get players who hack the transponder themselves or find someone who can do that for them. Or perhaps convince the bank official to give them the code.

Would need to have a bank official available to do this with the right code wherever the ship might happen to be.

 

[hdrider67]

Possibly for a surcharge that's quite small in comparison to the monthly payment on a starship - Cr1000 or so.

IMTU this is another benefit of having a TAS membership. TAS installations provide this forwarding service. Members get to send their payments free of charge while non-members have to pay .1% or 5000Cr (whichever is the smaller amount).

It makes being a TAS member important even if you own a ship.

 

[kristof65]

Then you get players who hack the transponder themselves or find someone who can do that for them. Or perhaps convince the bank official to give them the code.

Would need to have a bank official available to do this with the right code wherever the ship might happen to be.

Make the code to be entered once every 6 or 12 month and it's doabel for the big banks like Hortales. During that period a ship WILL visit a Class B or better port (a "must" every 12 month due to maintenance)

While I can't dispute the hacking of the transponders, getting codes out of bank officials won't necessarily be that easy.

Even today there are systems that have "single-use" passwords - the equipment itself generates an "access code" that has to be matched against a specific password. The equipment I currently work on uses this - when it asks for a password to activate certain features, it generates a random five digit code. We have to enter that five digit code into a program on our laptops to get a matching password. That program's distribution is thightly controlled.

A similar response/counter response system would be fairly easy to set up, and even tie to specific banks/individuals.

It isn't unhackable, but it also isn't easily defeated by bribing or threatening a bank official for a password, either.

 

[hdrider67]

Possibly for a surcharge that's quite small in comparison to the monthly payment on a starship - Cr1000 or so.

IMTU this is another benefit of having a TAS membership. TAS installations provide this forwarding service. Members get to send their payments free of charge while non-members have to pay .1% or 5000Cr (whichever is the smaller amount).

It makes being a TAS member important even if you own a ship.

IMHO it puts to much value on the Travellers Aid Society. I have seen TAS more like a "Gentlemans Club" (Think In 80 days around the World) rather than an organisation catering to freighter operators. The "regular spaceship ticket" that is IIRC part of TAS membership hints in that direction IMHO.

But the general idea has merits. Maybe introduce a "Captains Guild" like in Elisabeth Moons "Vattas War"

I'm not planning on having TAS act as a bank. They won't be setting up financing or anything of the like. What they will do is provide members a service of convenience of sorts. Non members can access this service but they have to pay for it.

The high passage every two months is nice but once you have your own ship, TAS lacks in value unless they provide services over and above free lodging.

I'm pretty sure a gentleman's club in the days of sailing would include members who would have forwarded valuable or important documents, backed by their word of honor it would get to the destination safely. IMTU it works that way with the addition to a bit more organization.

That's not to say an unscrupulous member wouldn't find a way to steal a few loan payments. Hmm, there's an idea... I think I might use that. Thanks for getting my gears turning!

 

[cbrunish]

When it comes down to it, due to the cost of ships, it would have to be a BIG bank or financial institution. So it would be assumed that the institution would have many branchs.

But what about credit cards or debit cards?

 

[hdrider67]

But what about credit cards or debit cards?

Perhaps letters of credit (or assets) in chip form with an adjustable balance?

 

[Tipsy]

Ok, in all fairness this hasn't come up in my campaign yet, but here are the thoughts I'm going to throw out for my Imperium.

1) The Imperium controls the space and trade between worlds. In my TU that means that a noble gets a piece of every interstellar trade transaction depending upon where the goods are coming from and going to. It also means that all traders need to have a charter to trade between worlds, a different one to trade between subsectors and so forth. These charters are not particularly hard to get, but it does give the authorities a sense of where a ship is likely to be.

2) To offer a ship's mortgage, a financial institution has to be operating on the sector level. That means that the Sector Duke has a piece of the bank's action (or in the case of the Marches the Emperor). It also means that they are required to have a presence at any starport 'C' or higher. A huge chunk of X-Boat and other mail runs revolve around making sure that a bank knows roughly where its ships are and how paid up they are.

3) Ship shares aren't cash and they aren't negotiable. They are an Imperial instrument designed to encourage trade and ship ownership. They are a reward for services rendered. The only thing you can really trade a ship share for is a percentage of a ship or much less expensive piece of property.

Ship shares and any ships purchased with them are guaranteed by Imperium itself. When you use a ship share to purchase a vessel the Emperor is your co-signer. Yes ships do go missing or are destroyed, but if you skip out then you are stealing from the Imperium itself and it will use its resources to make sure you regret it.