What to do if the money is not enough? Rising prices are causing problems for some people. If you have any valuables, you can go to the pawnshop and borrow them. Interview with Andreas Vogt from the Pawnshop in Freiburg.
What to do if the money is not enough? Rising prices are causing problems for some people. If you have any valuables, you can go to the pawnshop and borrow them. Interview with Andreas Vogt from the Pawnshop in Freiburg.
Yes. We have seen a significant increase in new customers in the past few weeks. And this, even if it was still vacation time. Loans have increased. We have heard from many customers that it is a difficult time right now.
I think so, although the predictions are more like reading tea leaves.
We have 30 to 50 customers a day. That’s maybe 1,500 commitments a month, which we renew, extend or redeem.
It is a cross-section of the population. On the one hand there is the old lady who sometimes comes to get us 20 or 30 euros because she can’t go around at the end of the month. From my point of view, we also have a strong social mandate. A loan of 20 euros doesn’t make economic sense to us, but we do it anyway. On the other hand, it goes all the way to doctors or entrepreneurs who deal with things and need short-term money to buy something. Or there are artisans who have the problem that, as we have heard, the payment behavior of customers is currently declining and they are waiting for their money, but their employees already have to pay.
It is very easy to get a loan with us. The customer does not have to fill out a large number of documents first; he usually receives the money within five to ten minutes if the deposit is valuable. You don’t have to disclose your financial situation to us, we don’t ask questions. It’s just a pawn shop. With us the deposit is responsible, with the bank the customer is responsible.
Most pledged loans are between 100 and 1000 euros. We mainly lend jewelery and watches.
Our main business is the pawn shop. We also buy gold and jewelry, which we then resell under our own brand here on the site. A goldsmith prepares it for us so that it looks new. There are people who want to sell gold and jewelry directly because there is more money for it. The price of gold is relatively good at the moment. Incidentally, we have also seen an increase in this line of business.
In theory, a pledged loan can be renewed every three months. There are also clients who do it two or three times. But by itself, the pledge is a short-term loan. In terms of cost, it is not meant to be converted into a multi-year loan. But we also have many repeat customers who redeem their deposits and then bring them back after a while when they need money again.
Between 90 and 95 percent of the deposits are collected again. There is this notion that pawnbrokers live on promises that aren’t redeemed and then auctioned off. But is not so. Our business is lending, auction is the exception. We are happy when people get their things back. We also expressly write to anyone who allows us to do so in advance if their lien is threatened with auction. The fact that the vast majority of deposits are redeemed is also due to the fact that things often have emotional value to customers. It also happens that wedding rings are brought to us. Also, we don’t assume full value items, but with a discount for various reasons. Customers would then lose a lot if they didn’t redeem the deposit.
This is a tough question. In recent years the number has always been more or less constant, even during the Crown period. We now have times that were unthinkable not so long ago. But my guess would be that it stays more or less the same.
Andrea Vogt since 2019 he has been the owner of the Freiburg pawnshop in Schreiberstraße 6, whose historical roots date back to 1810. Vogt studied medicine and worked as a management consultant
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This is how a pawn shop works
If you need money and have valuables, you can go to a pawn shop. The latter takes them as collateral for a loan usually from one quarter to one half of the value of the pledge. The customer has four months to redeem the deposit, i.e. to return the money plus interest. With a deposit of up to 300 euros, these are set at one percent per month in the Pledge Ordinance, above which it is negotiated.
Interest plus processing fees make up the pawnshop’s earnings. Contrary to popular belief, he does not earn money from the proceeds of unredeemed pawns. These must be auctioned by an auctioneer or bailiff. If there is a gain in excess of the loan amount, it belongs to the customer. If he does not claim it for three years, it is up to the state.
A pledged loan is less bureaucratic to obtain than a bank loan, it is meant to be short-term if a private individual or small business has cash flow problems. “Our business is classic interim financing,” says Wolfgang Schedl, managing director of the Central Association of the German Pawnbroking Industry.
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