Hi,
Two months back in my folly, I borrowed from a loan shark. I am 30 and I run an advertising and marketing business. For around 8-9 months in 2014, my business wasnt doing well. To pay up my staff I took some bank loans. For a couple of months in early 2015, I defaulted on a few payments to the bank and the bank sued me for bankruptcy. I in my desperation paid up the bank half the amount I owed ( ~20K) from the money I was making out of various projects I was doing. The bank relaxed a bit and put up an installment plan for me to pay up the rest in 1 yrs time.
Since I was paying up all my earnings to the bank to avoid bankruptcy, I was falling short of cash for my day-day expenses. I approached legal money lenders , but they refused to loan me since I had a bankruptcy case on me. But they sold my contact details to illegal money lenders who started sending SMSs to me. I was getting 30+ SMSs a day. I ignored them for a couple of months.
But unfortunately someday I needed urgent cash ( thinking back this was the worst decision) and I whatsapped one of the numbers. The guy asked me for Singpass , photos of IC and in 15 mins, my loan was approved. I got $800 and I had to pay back $1000 to settle and $250 to defer each time I couldnt pay up the $1000. The next week I arrange $1000 to settle the loan. But unfortunately since I owed the bank money, the bank deduct the $1000 from my account by itself. I was at my wits end and didnt know where to get the $250 to pay up the loanshark. I got another call from another loan shark who offered me another $500 with the same terms. I took it and paid back the first lender.
They offer weekly loans, so that the time runs out fast and you dont have much time to think and arrange money. Borrowing from another lender to pay back the first seemed a easy way out in short term. They seem to be part of some syndicate and target and pray upon you. In 2 months time, the thing ballooned up to $30,000 and 20 lenders.
Throughout the process, I was quite stressed and the loan amount was increasing alarmingly. I discussed with a friend and he lent me $20,000. I settled 15 out of the 20 lenders. Now I still owe around $8-10K to 5 lenders.
My friend asked me to report to police and not pay them. What should I do ? Will reporting to police help me here? Should I pay them?
Thanks!
Two months back in my folly, I borrowed from a loan shark. I am 30 and I run an advertising and marketing business. For around 8-9 months in 2014, my business wasnt doing well. To pay up my staff I took some bank loans. For a couple of months in early 2015, I defaulted on a few payments to the bank and the bank sued me for bankruptcy. I in my desperation paid up the bank half the amount I owed ( ~20K) from the money I was making out of various projects I was doing. The bank relaxed a bit and put up an installment plan for me to pay up the rest in 1 yrs time.
Since I was paying up all my earnings to the bank to avoid bankruptcy, I was falling short of cash for my day-day expenses. I approached legal money lenders , but they refused to loan me since I had a bankruptcy case on me. But they sold my contact details to illegal money lenders who started sending SMSs to me. I was getting 30+ SMSs a day. I ignored them for a couple of months.
But unfortunately someday I needed urgent cash ( thinking back this was the worst decision) and I whatsapped one of the numbers. The guy asked me for Singpass , photos of IC and in 15 mins, my loan was approved. I got $800 and I had to pay back $1000 to settle and $250 to defer each time I couldnt pay up the $1000. The next week I arrange $1000 to settle the loan. But unfortunately since I owed the bank money, the bank deduct the $1000 from my account by itself. I was at my wits end and didnt know where to get the $250 to pay up the loanshark. I got another call from another loan shark who offered me another $500 with the same terms. I took it and paid back the first lender.
They offer weekly loans, so that the time runs out fast and you dont have much time to think and arrange money. Borrowing from another lender to pay back the first seemed a easy way out in short term. They seem to be part of some syndicate and target and pray upon you. In 2 months time, the thing ballooned up to $30,000 and 20 lenders.
Throughout the process, I was quite stressed and the loan amount was increasing alarmingly. I discussed with a friend and he lent me $20,000. I settled 15 out of the 20 lenders. Now I still owe around $8-10K to 5 lenders.
My friend asked me to report to police and not pay them. What should I do ? Will reporting to police help me here? Should I pay them?
Thanks!
