Loans and Lending

Loans and Lending(top)

Loans and item lending are both daily occurances on ECC. While some people are trustworthy people to share your stuff with, the truth of the matter is that you should not just give your stuff to people expecting to get it back automatically. Staff can only act upon a loan going awry if there is proper evidence of the loan being given and then not returned. Even with proper evidence, there is never a guarantee that staff can retrieve your items or money, in fact, you should never lend out anything that you're not willing to lose, because at the end of the day there is a high probability that you won't get it back.

Keep Your Stuff To Yourself(top)

The safest place for anything you own is always on your own person or in chest cprivated solely to you, or in your own enderchest. (Please remember that your inventory and enderchest will get cleared after 180 days of inactivity, so if you're planning any extended leave, make sure you clear out your enderchest and store all your items in a safe place, locked solely to you.)
By lending anything out, you run the risk of never seeing it ever again. Even with a proper contract/agreement/evidence in place, EcoCityCraft staff cannot and will not force anyone to pay you back anything you have lent to them.
Lending money or items is 100% at your own risk. The best the staff team is able to do is attempt talks and create documentation in the form of complaints/ban appeals/breached contracts that the person is unsafe to loan to in the future. They cannot guarantee the return of your items, and cannot force the person you have lent to, to return it.

Safe Lending(top)

If you absolutely must lend something out:

• Do a background check.
  • Search the user in question on the forums, specifically keep an eye out for the complaints and ban appeals forum, as well as the contracts forum.
  • A user with a breach of contract on record, several complaints against them that involve transactions, or ban appeals that involve them scamming, breaching contracts, or otherwise having issues with transactions of any sort, are probably people best to avoid.
  • You may also find out that someone currently owes a lot of different people money, and this may serve as a red flag as well.
  • Look for threads on other parts of the forum where there might be some indication of the user's integrity. If they have several successful transactions in the For Sale / Wanted / Feedback / Job Offers forum, or just seem to be active and contributing to the community in a positive way, they are more likely to be trustworthy in the case of a loan of some sort.
  • Note that while you should look for signs of a user being trustworthy/untrustworthy, does not mean that something cannot go wrong if you ultimately decide to lend. Always take proper evidence if you go through with a lending transaction.

• Repeat business.
  • Someone you have done business with in the past, or a close friend has done business with in the past, is far more trustworthy than someone you randomly pick in trade channel.
  • Friends are also safer people to lend to, due to the closeness which makes the urge to scam and default on a loan a lot less prominent.
  • Even if it is with someone you are in some way close with, take proper evidence of every lending transaction.

• Don't lend more than you're willing to lose.
  • Due to the fact that there is a risk that you will not get your loaned money/items back, never lend to anyone, even people you've decided to trust, more than you are willing to lose.
  • Lending large amounts makes it harder for the person that you've lent it to to pay it back, as well as puts you out for a lot more if they turn out to be unable to.
  • Lending in large amounts also increases the urge to scam and keep the lent items to oneself.
  • Lend in small amounts, and never lend out anything that you do not feel you could continue on the server without. If it is a necessity to get the items in question back, your best bet is to not lend it in the first place.