Sales promotion device that creates customers' purchasing power in the form of a fixed cost, fixed period installment loan, secured by a lien on the purchased item as the collateral. In case of capital equipment, the customer repays the loan from the earnings

generated by the purchased asset (which otherwise would have remained unsold due to the customers' lack of cash). During the repayment period the buyer has the possession and use but not the ownership (title) to the item. Only upon the full payment of the loan, the title passes to the buyer. Also called installment buying, it is a social innovation that expands the economy with additional income. Cyrus McCormack (1809-84, one of the inventors of the harvesting machine) pioneered it in the early 19th century US, and Issac Singer (1811-75, one of the inventors of the sewing machine) made it a common practice.

What Does Hypothecation Mean?
When a person pledges a mortgage as collateral for a loan, it refers to the right that a banker has to liquidate goods if you fail to service a loan.  The term also applies to securities in a margin account used as collateral for money loaned from a brokerage.

A mortgage is the transfer of an interest in property (or the equivalent in law - a charge) to a lender as a security for a debt - usually a loan of money. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is the lender's security for a debt. It is a transfer of an interest in land (or the equivalent) from the owner to the mortgage lender, on the condition that this interest will be returned to the owner when the terms of the mortgage have been satisfied or performed. In other words, the mortgage is a security for the loan that the lender makes to the borrower.

This comes from the Old French "dead pledge," apparently meaning that the pledge ends (dies) either when the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure.^[1]

In most jurisdictions mortgages are strongly associated with loans secured on real estate rather than on other property (such as ships) and in some jurisdictions only land may be mortgaged. A mortgage is the standard method by which individuals and businesses can purchase real estate without the need to pay the full value immediately from their own resources. See mortgage loan for residential mortgage lending, and commercial mortgage for lending against commercial property.