Reply #11: Yes, and No.

[Frodo]

The purpose of the loan is important to your banker, not just as a (minor) determining factor in the credit decision ("minor" if it isn't being used as collateral - "major" if it is), but because the government requires us to report on certain types of lending. We need to track certain demographc information about you in any case, but some types of lending (real estate and business use for example) we are especially careful.

So you will ALWAYS be asked the purpose of the loan (and "NOYB" won't get you very far).

BUT. It depends a lot on the ammount involved. Nobody asks the purpose of the loan for a credit card. If the investment was less than 10-20-30k you might fit it on your cards - BUT that defeats your intention of getting favorable rates. A better option would be a home equity line... just tell them it's for "future use" or "investments" (always struck me as irrational to not care that someone was borrowing money to "gamble" in the markets, but there it is). If you have the equity and good credit, there should be no problem at all.

Of course, home equity lines tend to go up as rates rise in the market. So your best bet of locking in LOW rates is to refinance your house and take out all the equity. It may or may not be worth it depending on tons of factors.

If you don't have tone of equity in your house or other assets to borrow against ten you probably won't be able to accomplish what I think you are doing. If there is a bank out there that will loan out 100K (for instance) without knowing the purpose for the loan or having something MORE valuable as collateral... I want to know who they are so I can short their stock - they won't be in business very long.

Best of luck.