They Are Called Loan Sharks (And Not Loan Sheep) For A Reason

If anyone asks me about loans, the first thing I will say will be, "If you love yourself, stay away from loans, especially the online loan apps."

Funnily enough, a lot of top enterprises out there rely on loans for reputable financial institutions to expand. But then, these reputable institutions before they give out loans have a list of criteria an average man may not be able to meet. That's why online loan apps became a thing during and immediately after the Covid pandemic. With hunger and loss of jobs biting hard, people turned to those dangerous online lending apps for a solution. Most people truly regret it, including yours truly.

The first time I heard a scary story about loans was in the year 2012. I was discussing with a friend the possibility of starting a business with loans from banks. That's when he told me about some scary deeds that were unimaginable. I never verified the authenticity of his claim but it was enough to scare me away.

His story was that banks in Lagos demand for landed properties as collateral before giving out a business loan. After giving out the loans, the bank managers do their best - both spiritually and physically- to make sure the person never gets the money to settle the loan. When the agreed term is up and the loan isn't settled, the property is taken over by the bank as a settlement for the loan.

But what scared me the most was that he claimed bank managers back then often do backhanded deals whereby they will pay the loan by themselves and take over the landed property which was always more valuable than the loan. By doing that, they enriched themselves by destroying another person's life. It sounded scary, but possible. Afterall, people have killed for lesser loot before.

The second time I read scary stuff about loans was when a researcher exposed a gang that takes advantage of vulnerable people to push out loans with exorbitant interest rates and a huge punishment for late repayment. These wicked gangs went as far as using Photoshop to place the head of a woman on a naked body and send it to the defaulting woman's contact, parading it as the woman's nudes. According to the article, the woman nearly committed suicide when she realized everyone in her office has seen that picture. They all thought she was actually the nude person. For weeks, she struggled to cope with the shame.

As for me, my most worrisome encounter has to be with an online loan app called LCredit. I had borrowed money from them a couple of times and never defaulted in my repayment. On a particular day, I made my repayment with about 45 minutes to the end of the day. Unbelievably, the app wasn't updated that I have made repayment, despite the fact that the money was already deducted out of my account.

When it was a few minutes past midnight, they added late payment fees to my account. That annoyed me and I swore I wouldn't pay it. All efforts to contact the bunch of fraudsters proved abortive. The next thing I knew was that they were already calling my relatives with threatening words. That was embarrassing.

Despite that, I stuck to the point that they caused the problem, not me. At some point they already contacted virtually everyone on my contact list and I no longer worry myself anymore. I've moved on from the embarrassment and wasn't worried about what worse they could do. Fortunately, they were one of the online loan apps that was first delisted from PlayStore. Since then, I have my peace.

Online loan apps are terrible. They're called loan sharks for a reason. Please, steer clear of them. They are worse than the devil itself.

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