Banks and loans

If you are a credit card holder, you probably receive calls (average 1 mth once) from the customer service officers (or whatever you want to call them) to tell you they are offering an exclusive offer to you, whereby they are offering LOAN to you at a low interest rate. I paused for a while and I was like, “WOW, so exclusive. A loan!” Normally when I receive such calls, I will decline politely and can’t help but to feel extremely put off by them. I was thinking, “Do you think I am so desperate that I need a loan?!” Imagine, an anonymous loan shark call you one day, asking, “Oei, ai jio luii mai?” (Want to borrow money?, in hokkien) It’s so weird. Do you see any differences among the two? You decide. Having said that, what have this world becoming into? I remembered reading one article from the national daily that “Debt” is no longer the BAD word, as everyone is in debt, be it housing loan, bank loans or even credit card loans like installments. Maybe I am still living in the Flintstone era because I am seriously perturbed of the word “Debt” despite it being widely accepted. Here comes my question, is it ethical of banks to call customers up and offer them a loan (at low interest rate)? Is this a temptation? Are people today able to resist the offer?

I wonder what will happen if everyone adopts this mentality: I just spend my money, and if I overspent, I can go to any local bank and ask for a loan. So easy! Like ATM. (That’s what XXX bank told me, “Like ATM! So easy!”)

The rise of the bankruptcy petitions is significant and menacing, to me. In fact, from the newspaper we can see that the figures have increased progressively throughout the years. I wonder what will happen a few years later with all these exclusive loan offers. Are youngsters these days able to curb their spending tendency and stay away from the enticing loan offers? I don’t quite think so.

Who is culprit for the increasing number of bankruptcy cases? The bank? The loan shark? People like us? The credit cards? Its hard to tell. All I can say is, there’s room for more research.