(Warning: Strong languages and rants ahead)
Imagine yourself working hard day and night to earn a decent living wage to either sustain yourself or to fulfill your dreams of buying stuff or go on your dream vacation using your hard-earned money. You might be feeling rewarded after all those work that you put in day in and day out. Now imagine that same money, instead going into some sketchy things like online gambling. Even worse, you lost substantial amount of money on those online gambling sites and ended up taking online loans. Now that is a recipe for disaster.
I want to stress two things in this piece: One, your financial condition is the product of your own management. And two, everything nowadays needs money, even just for menial things. Nowadays, with recent technological innovations, you can easily access your bank accounts from your smartphone. And that includes getting a loan. Online lending has become a recent trend in today's financial world. This can roughly be traced to the recent pandemic, where the world suddenly stopped running itself. When money is tight, and you need a quick buck, you can just download an app that allows you to access quick loan for a decent amount of money with various payment options. This can also apply to online shopping, specifically with the "buy now pay later" scheme.
Sure, this will ease the burden of paying right away for purchases or for someone who in dire need for a quick buck in tight situations, but there is a dark, disturbing and possibly disgusting underbelly that has plague this section of the financial industry. Since the lenders and the lending party are anonymous, some criminal-minded asswipes would purposely take some loan and proceeded to not pay the loan. And that is probably the worst thing that could happen if you are the one who is giving the loan, but this is not what we are here for.
Let me just say this to set this up for you dear readers: ONLINE FINTECH LENDING IN INDONESIA IS A CESSPOOL FULL OF MONEY-HUNGRY CAPITALISTS AND HEARTLESS DEBT COLLECTORS. There, I said it. Online lending is by far the most accessed financial service in Indonesia, which is in itself, is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan/OJK). You might be thinking, since it's regulated, these online fintech companies can just adjust their rates to the regulation, right? You are DEAD. FUCKING. WRONG. Even when the relevant organization is established to regulate themselves, the AFPI, or Asosiasi Fintech Pendanaan Bersama Indonesia (Indonesian Fintech Lending Association), these heartless motherfuckers behind these online lending apps always find their way to terrorize their customers.
There are two ways online lending apps did to trap their customers. One, is to formulate an interest rate that looks convincing enough that the consumer who got attracted started using their services, usually for extra cash to buy anything and everything imaginable. Currently, the interest rate is at 0,4%. But here's the kicker: The app can set whether that 0,4% can be applied daily, monthly, or even weekly. This then, allow the total fund to be returned to snowball to a point of impossibility. Imagine you borrow IDR1 million, only to find the number swelling to around IDR 3 to 4 million after interest. And that's not all, sometimes, the payment window can be set to the minimum time possible. Making the customer's effort to pay all those debts even harder. They then, were forced to seek another loan to pay off those debts, and when the payment is due, they scrambled to find another lending app to pay off another debt, not realizing that the debt could only grow rather than shrink. It's like digging a hole to cover up another hole.
And what happens when the customers fail to pay them on time? Debt collectors then spawn from the deepest parts of hell. Supposedly, debt collectors are task to remind the customers of their payments and/or collect those payments face to face. Then, what's the kicker then? These collectors often use their position to terrorize their customers into paying their debts, often with a mounting interest. And these bastards are quite heartless as well. There are too many cases of online debt-related suicide over the past 4 years. All with similar motives: They are tired of being hunted by debt collectors and their own debts. I can still recall a sensational case that once went viral on X (Twitter) about a man who took his own life over his debt. The story went like this: The man borrowed roughly IDR9 million through Adakami, one of the "legal" fintech apps under OJK, only to discover that the fund he needed to return snowballed so much, it was twice as the initial loan, at IDR18 million. It was speculated that either the interest rates or the administration fee that were manipulated so extensively to cause that number to increase. Knowing this, the man tried to pay off all those debts, but soon find himself out of money. And that's where the calls started. Initially the calls only come to him or his family, but somehow, the collectors managed to reach his place of employment, causing him to be fired unceremoniously. And instead of stopping, the Adakami debt collectors then deploy their sinister tactics, by flooding this man's address with fictitious online food orders, online shopping packages, even some mundane services like the waste management and even fire fighters and ambulances. The neighbors were kind enough to take those orders, but good things can't last, and in the end, the man took his own life because of the massive debt. But even after his death, the collectors still terrorize his family. If that does not constitute someone's behavior as heartless, I don't know what is.
And this is not limited with apps that only have online collectors. Field collectors can cause massive damages as well. Some apps have commissioned either internal field collectors or third-party vendors to assist them. And usually, these ones that cause a massive pain the ass. One time, a bunch of field collectors once camped outside a debitor's house to demand the payment of their debts, often causing distress to the consumers themselves. And they are willing to dumb themselves enough for the sake of a bonus paycheck to degrade, harass, even insult the debitors. Some of these fellas often not certified and only paid cheaply. And once they got arrested for causing a disturbance, the fintech app that hire them would swiftly disavow them. Those who do work for them often got away with a slap on the wrist, ready to torment another person for another day.
But what does is the correlation between these assholes and online gambling? Back to the statement early, quick buck for quick buck is needed for someone to participate in online gambling. They started small, and after gathering a good amount of winnings, they started to bet bigger and bigger, until they realize that they lost too much, they need quick cash to continue playing. This is where online fintech entered the fray. The player thought by borrowing an innocent amount of money, they can win back the loss, only to suffer more loss and their debts piling up. And when they realized that they would never win anything back and becoming addicted as they did it, it would be too late. Debts piling up and they have to sell everything to cover their loss, while destroying themselves and their families in the process. Granted, these people got into online gambling through influences by other people, often times through ads on social media. Not only that, but several recent investigations also revealed that there are major players that associate themselves with this illegal online gambling sites, mostly government official and even some law enforcement brass. The sad part is the majority of online gambling players are blue collar workers and those who fell below the poverty line. A combination of those factors could only lead to disaster of epic financial proportions.
I have friends who are either currently battling or already paid off their debts, and most of them are online fintech debts. I can’t help them all the time, but I can relate to some experiences, since I lend some money to some people in the past. Some paid me back, some didn't. But to waste all of your hard-earned cash on online gambling and turn into online lending, both legal and illegal, is nothing short of a stupid, destructive move you've ever done. Save your money for important events and stop screwing around with things like gambling.
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