Singapore — Unlicensed moneylending services have been creating issues for long in Singapore and recently efforts have been ramped up to deal with such occurrences.Although with additional efforts to handle unlicensed moneylenders, there has been a debate to make moneylending from such lenders a crime. This is done in order to further reduce moneylending harassment issues.
Head of Unlicensed Moneylending Strikeforce, Superintendent of Police Aileen Yap mentioned in an article on ChannelNewsAsia 11 Oct “Singapore has zero tolerance forunlicensed moneylending activities resulting in harassment acts that threaten the safety and security of our community.”
The benefits of borrowing from licensed moneylenders have long been accepted by the community at large. This is shown by the thriving popularity of legit moneylenders setting up shops in the neighbourhood. People have grown to accept such licensed moneylenders which set themselves aside from illegal lenders as they provide a form of legit lending services for those in need. The increased supply due to rising cost of living have led to people turning to suchbusinesses to apply for personal loans.
[B]Avoid the bad stuff early![/B]Avoid unlicensed moneylendersAvoid unlicensed moneylenders syndicates. Avoid harassment & high interest rates. Save the trouble of endless worries.
Avoid harassment methods by properly borrowing from legit moneylenders. In Singapore, moneylenders have to adhere to strict policy of different moneylending laws laid out by the government and if lenders fail to abide to one, they will face harsh punishments such as fines or revoking of lender’s license.More professional licensed moneylenders would also advise borrowers on a feasible repayment scheme which they can manage their money properly.Avoid extremely high interest rates met out by unlicensed moneylenders. Moneylenders are licensed by the “Registrar of Moneylenders” in Singapore, meaning there’s restrictions in place on the different fees, maximum interest rates they can make and the maximum amount they can lend out.With the new rules mentioned in this year Budget 2014, tighter control over licensed moneylenders shows thegovernment interest in this business and ensure it does not go beyond control.Avoid SMS spam from illegal moneylenders tempting you to borrow from them. Licensed money lenders are by law not allowed to tele market or send advertisements via SMSes to potential customers. One can report them to IPT as they have violated the personal DNC act and moneylenders act.Avoid illegal means of people obtaining your personal information. Bad moneylenders have been touted to use one’s personal Singpass login details to obtain personal information. This piece of information can be wrongfully used. Hence legal lenders will only do Singpass verification checks when one is obtaining a loan at the office. This is usually to check on your previous salary to issue you the appropriate loans that one can service.
On the whole, it’s much better that borrowing is not criminalized, but addressed through educating people on borrowing from different sources.Loan advisers are now equipped with proper knowledge to dish out proper loans to borrowers. They are usuallytrained by licensed moneylending firms and they adhere greatly to the rules enacted towards the company.By borrowing from legit licensed moneylenders, they offer short term payday loans and personal loans that ease up one’s financial burden. Aside from that, it is better knowing that these businesses have a regulatory compliance and legit licenses to provide loans.This form of security is a huge advantage as compared to borrowing from unlicensed ones. One can save their own trouble and borrow from legal providers instead.