Perhaps this is what you meant by usually, but otherwise I suggest reading the fine print on your home line of credit, if you have one.

Nearly all loans I have seen have a provision in the contract that the entire loan can be called at any time.

Is this a American thing?

Seems to be common in at least western countries.

Defo not the case here for consumer loans. A German bank cannot tell you to pay back a loan earlier than agreed on in the contract.

they can. if some of the circumstances that allowed you to get the loan changes. They can terminate the loan agreement and demand repayment in full immediately.

https://www.finanzcheck.de/kredit/kredit-kuendigung/

I think this is pretty common in loan agreements but I would guess it's rare to have this actually exercised because usually the change in circumstances is going to be something that's going to make repayment harder (no one is cancelling the loan because you notified them that you now make way more money). Trying to collect the full loan from someone with less money is going to be tough and if they then put them on a payment plan then they didn't achieve anything.

Plus it isn't great for customer relations and poor people are great clients for a bank who knows they can hit them for more and more fees.

What? No they don't!

I've never seen this in my life!

(The exception being overdrafts in Blighty which don't have fixed repayments agreed. Even then, the bank can't act unfairly).

Where do you live where this is the commonplace? Such terms would be laughed at here.

I've lived in the EU and all over the US. I've yet to see a loan where there isn't a clause allowing them to collect the entire loan under certain conditions, or even, in some cases, for any reason. Would you loan a bunch of money to someone if you couldn't say "sorry, you lied to me and I want my money back" or "you've missed 8 payments in a row, I want the remainder now and if you don't have it, we'll go to court?"

Check your loan agreement, I'm fairly confident there are ways for them to collect the full amount immediately.

> under certain conditions

This is very different from allowing the loan to be recalled "at any time" as you first stated.

Certain conditions and any time is quite different though

>at any time

>under certain conditions

Pick a lane, marty