Yes, it can. Depending on the amount. It is very unlikely that someone will risk the reputation of a high-ranking account for a few hundred dollars, for example. Check the lending board, there are lenders who will easily give loans to high-ranked accounts without any collateral. How do you explain that?
I'm not sure we're on the same line with what I said, collateral or not, a member can choose not to pay back if he doesn't have the intention to do so before collecting the loan. What I said is, rank doesn't make someone to pay back a loan.
For the nth time, rank does matter! Check the lending boards yourself; you can see countless examples of high-ranking members getting and repaying loans without collateral. The same cannot be said for newbie members. This wouldn't be the case if rank didn't matter.
I don't know how I'm going to put it to you, but I quite agree with you but do you know that in as much as we have high ranked members paying back there loan, we still have high ranked members who also fail to pay back loan? Do you know that?
We have good and bad users in this Forum so don't right off the newbies, they too can pay back but base on how some people do see them as new comers that can't be trusted, they too can do better than some high ranked members.