I don't know what happened but for the 2nd time, I'm in deep trouble with loan sharks. I just woke up today and realized that I owe Digido 7k, MoneyCat 7k and Fast Cash 13k
This is the 2nd time that I'm in this kind of situation. The last time was before the pandemic around 2019 to early 2020. I mismanaged my pay to the point that I owe Tala around 14k, Pesolaon, PesoQ, Casoto, PondoPeso and Cashwagon (the last 3 is no longer available on Google App Store). I wasn't able to pay those loans to the point that I got harassed on Facebook as well as on my landline and email.
I survived it the first time and in spite of the harassments and threats of charges at the barangay and court for small claims settlement, there's none. The worst that happened was this guy on Facebook posted the picture I used for the online loan application on my FB friend's comments.
I communicated with this guy to know who the law firm he represented or which of the 4 lending apps I have issues with released my photo. I planned to file a complaint at the NPC but I never got any more information. I have no proof that my personal data were sold to a collection agency. But I survived that incident.
Two years later, I repeated the same mistake I did. I never learned. First, I failed to plan on when to take the loan and when to pay it. After I got approved for a loan and was able to pay it, these loan sharks kept on offering me higher and higher loans.
Second, I ignored the high interest rates. It was definitely a red flag but I took the bait anyway. I'm borrowing 2k, I'm getting 1.6k so that leaves me with a P400 fee and interest. Looking back, that's really high interest rate. It's crazy!
So I have 6 Online Lending Apps in total and I already deleted them all. Good thing I don't owe Happy Pera 2 and MocaMoca anything when I deleted it. I still need to pay Pera Up 4k to close my account. And then there's the 3 OLA I mentioned above.
During 2019 when I first fall for this loan sharks, I'm not yet using GCash. I usually get the money via MLhuillier or Cebuana Lhuillier. So when I start getting numerous calls from these loan sharks before, I simply changed number. Actually, my phone and sim back then were stolen.
Now I'm worried because my number is link to my GCash account and I don't know if I could change it. So I cannot change my phone number that easily. This complicates things. But other than that, this will just be déjà vu of my first time that I fell for these loan sharks.
Lastly, and the most annoying one, is that these loan sharks will call the contact people that I indicated in my application with them. Before, I can simply advise them to replace SIM. But now, if their number is also link to GCash, they'll be really annoyed from these calls from the loan sharks asking them to remind me to pay my dues.
I hope this time, I will totally forgot about these loan sharks, move on, be a better person and take good care of those financial institutions that still trust me -- like GCash, GGives, TendoPay, Atome, Plentita and Revi Credit. I'm already blacklisted with credit cards so I really have to take good care of these remaining apps.
Like I always say, "walang nakukulong sa utang" and that being victims of these loan sharks and their ultra-high interest rates is not estafa. This is simply "utang" gone terribly wrong. Plus, there's the National Privacy Commission in case they resort to harassment. We'll see.
