Definitely taking a bank loan shouldn't be a choice for you and should be the last resource if you need to. You may be wondering, why am I writing about Bank Loans rather than Online Banking Security. I really felt how much ever Online Banking Security is important, 10 - 100 times more important for my readers to safeguard and make better plans.
Yeah! You may lose money if there is a online fraud unknowingly, whereas taking a loan, you will lose money knowingly in terms of interest and service charges. If its a credit card and you don't pay it on time, again you will get piled up with Late Fee, Financial Charges and so on. So either ensure you use money that you have and spend it wisely, rather than losing it. The credit card one is my personal experience, wherein the minimum due I paid always goes for the charges, when I requested a refund being a customer for 15 years, its nuts that I got ;) anyways that one is for an other post.
Back to loans, there has been one of the videos which has become famous in Tamilnadu - You can view it here, sorry but the language is in Tamil, but long story short.
In 2006, A person takes Rs. 51 Lakh loan from a leading bank to purchase a home at an interest rate of 14%. So the person due to the COVID situation, looks at his finances and realizes he has paid more interest and there was not update from the bank in-spite of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) announcing the reduction in interest rates, to support citizens.
So the person calls the banker and checks with him. To the person's surprise, He has paid 94 lakhs till date i.e. 2020 and only 14 lakhs has got deducted from the principal, meaning he has paid 80 lakhs just as an interest.
The person here asks, I daily get 10 calls on an average from banks asking if he needs credit cards, personal loans, home loans and so on. So is it not the bank's responsibility to call and let the customer know about this. The Banker responds you signed the agreement, you should have approached to reduce the interest. Now the person (A doctor) says, anyways I will pay and close the balance amount as there is no choice left for him and hangs up the call.
My Opinion - Once a person takes a loan from any bank, he is going to be customer for the bank until the tenure of loan ends, isn't it the responsibility of the bank to ensure they communicate to the customer. Secondly, the customer is not going end the relationship, just with a loan, he may have the savings, he will use that bank credit card and so on. They say "Customer is King" , but in banks, Customer are not kings for sure. If you don't believe, you miss few EMIs or miss a payment - then you will know, whether you are kings or not.
A couple of weeks back, indeed one of the managers of bank said, "Sir, as you don't have liquid cash now, you can take a personal loan of around 1 lakh." So I asked him, if I take how much is the interest going to be and the tenure. He replied "12 Months & 1.6 lakhs is what you will pay". So you know the answer I would have told.
So readers, please take a wise decision, before taking loans or using credit cards. Ensure you use this as a last means if its very much needed. If taken also, ensure you make few bullet payments and close it off, so at-least you don't pay your hard-earned money as interest & financial charges.
I myself have few loans, and I am struggling to balance the finances. My experience is my learning, my shared experience, would be your learning. Time to Decide - whether to invest in banks or buy as gold or any other investment. :)
