by Dark_Knight
Pro Loan-OI have played Le Havre hundreds of times...the loans are no big deal. At the beginning of the game, things are VERY tight (Hey! It's an Uwe game!), and sometimes you simply need the money.
DONT WORRY ABOUT IT
Towards the last couple of turns you are going to have some big-time pay-dates with shipping and what not-pay them off then-just don't wait til the game ends, when they become $7 loans instead of $5.
I have seen folks take out a loan or 2, get really freaked and focused on the "Interest" payment-and do everything in their power to pay off the loan early-with the net result that they have forgone precious turns to do other things, find themselves, once again scraping the bottom of the financial barrel and worst of all-often end up taking out new loans.
Take them, take them freely-in fact, once you have a loan-the interest is exactly the same, 1 loan or 100-so work your finances in such a way as to maximize payout on the loans (i.e. try to make them for $1, so you get $3 change)....
I win a lot-not always-but commonly find myself in the half-dozen range (plus or minus 2) of loans late in the game.
Unlike ANY other Uwe game-loans in Le Havre mean very little on the negative end.