Chapter 16 Managing Short-Term Liabilities (Financing) 359
52. Judy’s Fashions Inc. purchases supplies from a single supplier on terms of 1/10, net 20. Currently,
Judy takes the discount, but she believes she could extend the payment to 40 days without any
adverse effects if she decided not to take the discount. Judy needs an additional $50,000 to
support an expansion of fixed assets. This amount could be raised by making greater use of trade
credit or by arranging a bank loan. The banker has offered to loan the money at 12 percent
discount interest. Additionally, the bank requires an average compensating balance of 20 percent
of the loan amount. Judy already has a commercial checking account at this bank which could be
counted toward the compensating balance, but the required compensating balance amount is
twice the amount that Judy would otherwise keep in the account. Which of the following
statements is most correct?
The cost of using additional trade credit is approximately 36 percent.
Considering only the explicit costs, Judy should finance the expansion with the bank loan.
The cost of expanding trade credit using the approximation formula is less than the cost of
the bank loan. However, the true cost of the trade credit when compounding is considered
is greater than the cost of the bank loan.
The effective cost of the bank loan is decreased from 17.65 percent to 15.38 percent
because Judy would hold a cash balance of one-half the compensating balance amount
even if the loan were not taken.
If Judy had transaction balances that exceeded the compensating balance requirement, the
effective cost of the bank loan would be 12.00 percent.
53. You need to borrow $25,000 for one year. Your bank offers to make the loan, and it offers you
three choices: (1) 15 percent simple interest, annual compounding; (2) 13 percent simple interest,
daily compounding (360-day year); (3) 9 percent add-on interest, 12 end-of-month payments. The
first two loans would require a single payment at the end of the year, the third would require 12
equal monthly payments beginning at the end of the first month. What is the difference between
the highest and lowest effective annual rate?