Bitten by a loan shark

"He who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing "

And according to Robert kiyosaki :

"money does not solve problems, Intelligence solve problems and prouces money".

Online loan sharks became very popular in my country in the early 2020. Alot of citizens had very unpalatable experiences with such platforms such as bitter embarrassments, battered reputation and even suicide due to depression as a result of the inability to offset the debts.

There are alot of such online loan apps all over the internet . Most times, an ad about a loan app might pop up on your phone screen whenever you are doing something else with your data. I have encountered a handful of ads about online loan platforms on the screen of my device but I never pay them any mind. Although, I have heard and read stories about people who had an experience with such loan apps.

At first, they would try to entice you by offering lower interest rates and also proposing a longer duration before payment. But as soon as you had downloaded the app and registered, you'd discover something different from what was initially promised. This because the employees of such firms have got to meet a specific customer target set for them by their employers if they are to keep the job. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise when they adopt various tricks in order to lure unsuspecting individuals in becoming their clients. A potential customer might still go ahead and accept the terms and conditions even though they are not favourable to him, due to lack or probably due to greed.

With some other platforms, when you pay earlier than the due date, you would again be tempted with offers of bigger sums of money. And the more you borrow, the more your borrowing limits would be increased, and ofcourse the interest rates.

By the way, I don't know if it's just me, but I have observed overtime that most borrowed money dont last as long as my personal income. The money will be gone in a shortwhile, and if one doesn't have much restraint, he or she might consider doing it again... and again. Needless to say, borrowing could be addictive. Mostly the kind of people who fall into such loan traps are compulsive borrowers who lack basic financial skills and adequate resource management.

You know, to some people, it' might be more convenient to lend money from a faceless app than to approach a neighbor, a friend or even a bank for money

Such a person might want to try out other loan platforms, which would also begin to lend him money especially if he had a boost in his credit ratings in the previous loan app. In a short while, an individual might become so absorbed in such platforms and that's when the troubles sets in.

A family member would be considerate enough about a relative's debt and might even be kind enough to give grace period. But these loan firms are neither family or friend and they can adapt very stringent methods when dealing with defaulters

In order to avoid a serious consequence, a defaulter who couldn't payback his debt might start to source for another loan app to borrow more money to clear the debt of a previous loan app. And the cycle continues..... Before you know what is happening, one might spend the next one, two or three years paying off debts and all the interest accrued. And that's how taking a loan of $30 could lead one into paying more than $400 dollars in a few months, that's if you are lucky.

Things could get worse if a borrower also doubles as a gambler too. Taking loans from loan apps in order to stake it on sport betting is something that had almost or totally ruined the lives of a handful of young men as a result of greed.

Some months ago, I heard the story of a young lady who took her own life. She was unable to offset her loans after the due date of payment. The loan company sent really denigrating texts about her to all the contacts in her phone. She had initially granted them approval to her phone book during her online registration with the app. It was one of those odd terms and conditions that some loan apps usually present to potential clients before they would grant their loan request. So in the case, a client defaults or refuses to pay up, they would send out words to all their contacts that the individual is a scammer, criminal and a cheat who had eloped with an organisation's money. Unfortunately for this woman, her husband's relatives also recieved such messages about her, and as she wasn't in a cordial relationship with her in-laws, the shame was unbearable. They trolled and laughed her on virtually all social media, reposting the defamatory text messages and tagging her pictures along. Needless to say that the emotional damage was just too much for her to bear and she had to end her life.

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Thanks fir reading 🙏