Hi guys, I'm Chris. Back in 2017 it was a bad year for me, I don't know how to manage finance and I started to borrow money from loan shark instead of my own family and friends. I wanted to share this story very long but I couldn't find a way to tell out until I have this blog platform which make things easier for everyone to know.
This story not just wanted everyone to know about my history but also I wanted the truth to be out, not everything is rainbows and butterflies, and maybe this could be an awareness to you guys out there.
Note : I wasn't good relationship with my family members and I don't have friends. Simple reasons my family and friends don't like I dated my girlfriend (now my wife) who was a single mother.
Cut short all grandmother stories and back to the topic how it started and ended.
One day when I was short of money, I'm running out of cash for my commitments and rental, and on that time I wasn't earn enough to cover all my expenses and costs. I was overconfident that I could do everything end up I lost my sales, I lost count my expenses and I started to fear about a lot of things.
I hide my finance from my girlfriend (I asked her to stay outside with me together with her daughter and told her not to work instead at home to take care the daughter) so that she wouldn't know how much I earn and also wouldn't have to worry about money, I always tell her "don't worry, I can handle" even she ask me if she could help me out for our finance back then.
So, one day again while I was going out to work with very limited cash, fear in my mind how to survive for the coming days and commitments are coming closer and closer, I came across apply personal loan from bank or credit. Tried on Easy by RHB Bank before due to having high commitments and got my loan rejected. So I saw an advertisement sticker on the electric box on the street written "Pinjaman Berlesen, blah blah blah...", I called and I got my first loan shark contact.
These guys have a lot of nicknames and usually using a dummy phone. The first guy I remember call Marcus and his staff Andy. Both of them have some Thailand Tattoo on their body, wearing gold and a "chinese calculator" ring, came with Mercedes-Benz C Class latest model. Starting they will be very friendly with you, call you brother, and we just trying to help, but when you slow return their money you'll end up in a lot of troubles.
So, first loan very easy to apply, just give your details and they will follow you back to the house where you live (so they could come up and disturb you when you pay late or not paying).
Note : I can explain all these details because clearly, I borrowed before and I know how the procedures is.
WARNINGS : Not asking you to borrow but to be aware of what would happened, so continue reading below.
Starting RM10,000 I loan from them, deposit RM1,000, Interests RM1,000 on the spot deduct and RM600 admin fees and total you get back RM7,600 in just less than few hours (interests calculated every 2 weeks as 10%). Fast money? Yeap but comes with great responsibilities. You don't know how fast the debt will pile up.
So that's how I got my first loan shark without my girlfriend notice. In between your 2 weeks interest timing, your loan shark will call and ask you to borrow extra again, sounds good to just add another RM10,000 to your account if you agree with them, but at first I don't want any extra because I thought my sales coming in and I could just pay off the loan shark. Time goes by, no sales and I have used up all the money and its time for paying the interests, so here I panic again and go find another loan shark contact.
Very funny thing happened after you borrow from the first loan shark, multiple loan sharks will start to send you sms/WhatsApp out of nowhere (actually the first loan shark passing your number around to gain more profit from you) and asking you to borrow from them saying that they have good interest today and etc. keep persuading you to borrow.
From there I keep borrowing to cover my debts and interests from time to time. My girlfriend find me very suspicious because I always have to go atm or cash deposit to transfer money (I usually lied to her saying I have to transfer money to customers, suppliers and etc).
Time after time, my debts pile up and my fear is getting bigger day after day, I couldn't even sleep well at night worrying the next day how am I going to pay off all the debt, I always dreaming that I could just do a lot of sales in a short period of time and cover all the debt I owed from the loan sharks. One day my girlfriend sneak to my phone and found out all the loan shark details, she woke me up and scolded me very badly.
The next morning quickly she ask me to figure it out how to settle, I told her don't worry I try to go out and negotiate with one loan shark in hope he can cover all other loan shark debt so I could pay to one loan shark in a longer tenure. Naively that the loan shark conned me again and I got more debts the next day, when I return home my girlfriend quickly ask me to pack up everything, inform my family and move out immediately. She hide me in a hotel with private parking lot so no loan shark can actually find me, at the same night loan shark started to harass by calling and texting, even go to my family house pasting papers and shouting my name in the neighbourhood. Shamely my family have to deal with it in a short period notice and had them stressed out.
My girlfriend asking help from her friends and found out the only way to settle this is either settle the debt or hide forever but they still will harass my family. The other option is my family have to go public service (MCA or PPIM) and disown me as a son so that the loan shark will not disturb them and I ask my family to choose this path.
Ok, this part I really have to thank my girlfriend (now my wife) that she risked her life to stay with me, even all her family members asking her to go back her own family house because she worry that she couldn't see me again after this. I owed my girlfriend my life.
How I settle the loan sharks? Yeap about to letting you guys know. The loan sharks keep harassing my phone and my family members. I called public service, Loan Shark handling department and they ask me walk in to find some big contact to handle this case with the loan sharks, and so I go to the Public Service building the next day with my family (my family don't like my girlfriend even since the first day we dating, in order to protect her I ask her to stay in the hotel wait for me while I go there).
The most embarrassed moments happened in my life is that day, my mother whacking me in the Public Service building while I need to filling up all the loan shark details and plea for help from the big contact to settle the loan shark debt with discounted interests, the big contact agreed. To be honest I don't know how many loan sharks I have been borrowed until I filled up the forms in total of 26 loan sharks I borrowed.
My family tried to sell all their belongings and borrow money from many places in order to get enough fund to pay off the loan sharks and they managed to get it done in few days. So me and my family returned to Public Service and asking the big contact to settle the debts.
Few things I get to experienced in this Public Service and loan sharks things.
1. Big contact pointed his gun at me to threaten me not to borrow loan sharks again in front my brother.
2. Big contact very close with loan sharks, he even can call out few nicknames are the one he know in person.
3. Big contact shoulder to shoulder with the loan sharks in a very friendly manner.
4. Yeap I have a public record with borrowing loan sharks, total 26.
5. Loan sharks are syndicates, they circulating your details within their circles and you borrow from all of them, basically you get conned.
After settled the loan shark, my family trying to sit me down and force me to break up with my girlfriend and yeap I disagree (before my family pay off the loan shark they also asking me to break up with my girlfriend and I responded no, and wanted my family to disown me instead). The night my family settled my loan sharks and asking me go back their house and discuss, they try to lock me in the house without letting me go to find my girlfriend, I escaped. Note : Even my family help me resolved my loan shark issue but one thing I hated them by they putting the blame on the innocent (my girlfriend), so I agree to pay them back every month but I insist to stay outside with my girlfriend because I don't want them to give bad faces to my girlfriend.
So, guys that's how I, or should say my family resolved my loan sharks issue. My girlfriend would have helped me but because I stopped her from her work at Singapore, jealous that she could find someone else better so I keep her by my side. But at this situation, for a young girl at her mid twenties and never give up on me, she save my life in many ways. My family did save me from being a loan shark or getting killed by a loan shark too, but this comes with a big price as well.
After so many years, even I did pay my family back, yet they still putting blame on my girlfriend even after she became my wife and give birth a handsome grandson to my family. To be honest, without my girlfriend asking me to notify my family back then, they probably could be just burnt by the loan sharks from me. My family isn't thankful to my girlfriend at all.
Well that's the negative parts of 26 loan sharks. After all the obstacles, we against all odds and my girlfriend never leave me a single step away, instead she push me forward to be a better person. We push towards all obstacles and at the age of 29, I proposed to her and we got married with a new baby boy right now.
It is a hard road for me and especially my wife, loan shark is not a good thing to go through, so are problematic in-laws. Thanks for reading up to here as I'll tell you next time more about my story. Everyone have their own story, in this story I just wanted to tell you all, I'm not just not perfect, I attempted suicide, and I'm not a good human being too. With all my flaws and my wife see something in me, that's what make life valuable to live.