Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

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Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by Udon Map » October 10, 2018, 10:10 am

From The Nation


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About 77.5% of Bangkok residents are in debt and 53% admit to have fallen behind in repayments, a survey by Bansomdej Poll in collaboration with the Foundation for Consumers (FFC)’s Chaladsue (Smart Buyer) magazine reveals.

The poll of 1,171 people conducted on August 24-28 found that out of the indebted respondents (most of whom had debts even before this year), 37.6% were in debt for housing, followed by car payments (28.2%), loans with illegal money-lenders (18.8%) and loans with banks (17%).

The three most-cited loan sources were commercial banks (36.4%), finance/leasing companies (16.7%) and loan sharks (15.3%), Bansomdej Poll executive Singh Singkhajorn told the press yesterday.

About 40% of the indebted respondents owed under Bt100,000, while 30.6% owed between Bt100,000-Bt500,000 and 17.4% between Bt500,000-Bt1 million. Another 8.2% owed between Bt1 million-Bt3 million, 2.7% between Bt3 million-Bt5 million and 1.1% owed more than Bt5 million.

Some 53% admitted to missing repayments, while 34.4% said otherwise and 12.2% were unsure.

More than two-thirds (67.5%) knew about the legal interest rate.

About 46% had been subjected to communication regarding repayment (33.5% via letters and 19.6% via debt collectors’ rude verbal communication).

About 22.8% of the in-debt respondents said they had been subject to lawsuits and asset seizure over unpaid overdue debts.

As for their awareness about the Thai government’s measures to aid the creditors, 40% of the respondents said they knew about new loan sources such as The Bank of Thailand (BOT) Debt Clinic, the provincial-level “Pico Finance” loans under Finance Ministry’s supervision (to handle smaller cases and with loans not exceeding Bt50,000) and the BOT-supervised “Nano Finance” loans for vocational aid (to handle larger loans up to Bt100,000).

Slightly over half said they were interested in joining the Debt Clinic, while about a third were interested in the Pico Finance loans, the poll found. FFC secretary-general and Chaladsue magazine editor Saree Ongsomwang said Pico Finance and Nano Finance charged a high interest of up to 36% per year, and therefore were not truly helping consumers. They urged the government to set the interest rate at 15% per year to truly aid the people.

Narumon Mekborisut, chief of the foundation’s Consumer Rights Protection Centre, said Bangkok residents still didn’t have enough information to decide whether to partake in the government’s debt-tackling measures, including the Debt Clinic. Narumon cited Credit Card Debtors’ Club president Chuchat Boonyongyot’s comment in the magazine’s 209th edition (July 2018) that none had at the time passed strict criteria to use the Debt Clinic services.

Narumon also cited the FFC report that from January 1 until September 30, a total of 392 complaints were filed about financial matters – 349 of which were about debts. Among the debt complainants, 106 owed to credit cards, 105 owed to leasing, 80 owed to normal loans and four owed to loan sharks. A total of 152 debtors faced legal actions, while 11 claimed to have been subjected to illegal methods of debt collection.

As many respondents were unaware of the Debt Collection Act, she urged the government to speedily pass criteria to control debt-collection fees. She also urged creating a committee to campaign about the law and to send a letter to the Royal Thai Police and the Provincial Administration Department to enforce the law.


Courtesy of Nation Multimedia
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30356139



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FrazeeDK
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by FrazeeDK » October 10, 2018, 3:38 pm

20 years ago there was no "easy credit" no rising middle class with cars, trucks, and motorcycles to pawn at a variety of lending stores. Very few people in the Kingdom had credit cards. In fact, back in the early 00's I believe people by government regulation had to make 20,000 baht a month for banks to issue them.. The advent of tremendously "easy credit" and the lack of financial acumen in your average person here has led to this level of debt. It was a race to match the levels of consumer debt in the west.... And that's not even including your back channel village loan sharks...
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by Barney » October 10, 2018, 3:57 pm

Just where the powers to be want them, same in the western world.

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by yartims » October 10, 2018, 5:01 pm

wow
why am i not surprised ..and so they build bigger malls to get them in even more debt on luxury items bought on cards
the only good Tory is a lavatory

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by glalt » October 10, 2018, 5:11 pm

Many years ago credit card companies were sending credit cards to nearly every one. During my and my ex-wife's first Christmas together, I came home from work and saw many quite expensive gifts being wrapped. She came from a family of thirteen kids. Like most young married couples back then, finances were pretty tight. I asked her where she got the money to buy all those things. She told me not to worry because she bought everything with credit cards. It was like she didn't have to pay for anything ever. I had to scrape and scratch for a long time to pay that credit card debt. Needless to say that was the only time she did that because I took the scissors to all her cards.

When Thailand made getting credit cards easy, I knew where that was going to lead.

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by parrot » October 10, 2018, 5:31 pm

I can't remember exactly where in Udon the Easy Money shop is located.....??somewhere near the fountain circle??. But my wife and I joke about it every time we pass.
https://www.easymoney.co.th/

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by Old Grumpy » October 10, 2018, 8:20 pm

parrot wrote:
October 10, 2018, 5:31 pm
I can't remember exactly where in Udon the Easy Money shop is located.....??somewhere near the fountain circle??. But my wife and I joke about it every time we pass.
https://www.easymoney.co.th/
Right opposite Makro, easy parking if your interested. :-" :lol:
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If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by saint » October 11, 2018, 4:49 am

A survey of 1170 people out of a population of 10 million is meaningless . :roll:

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by Giggle » October 11, 2018, 5:09 am

A survey of 1170 people yields a margin of error of less than 3.2 percent. That's about 97 percent confidence level, which is more than sufficient for a survey like this.

If you increase the sample size to 10,000, the margin of error is still 1 percent. That's a lot of extra work for two percentage points in confidence.

We must assume the sample was random (every resident has an equal chance of being selected) and representative (contain a similar proportion of high and low value items of the population). A larger sample size only marginally increases confidence.
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by JimboPSM » October 11, 2018, 12:34 pm

While articles on surveys/polls (such as that in the OP) make for interesting reading, without some kind of contextually comparative data that we can relate to they are not all that informative.

As an example, here is an extract from an article on "Motley Fool" earlier this year that would appear to show that most US residents are in debt - and, perhaps, even more "fiscally irresponsible" than Bangkok residents :shock:
It's no secret that America is a nation that runs on debt, but it may surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults owe money in some way, shape, or form. According to new data from Comet, here's how many Americans have debt at present:

• 80.9% of baby boomers

• 79.9% of Gen Xers

• 81.5% of millennials

Full article: https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/02 ... -debt.aspx
Please note that while I’m not trying to compare the "fiscal responsibility" of Bangkok residents with that of US residents, I am trying to point out how easy it can be to be judgemental about any group when contextual comparisons are not provided in the articles (both articles are guilty in that respect).

Context matters

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by mech_401 » October 11, 2018, 1:58 pm

true , but its the level of debt in proportion to earnings that is so staggering. often a years gross salary, sometime several years. some months back there was a story on govt workers who were
extended multiple lines of easy credit. the amounts
of debt they were buried under was insane

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by FrazeeDK » October 12, 2018, 8:11 pm

I've always found it a bit startling to see Thai government workers, middle to upper middle class who use their jobs as security for loans when in their early-mid 50's. I've seen people take out quite large loans to buy that 1.4 million baht Toyota Fortuner, to build that 2.5 million baht house then when retiring to a relative pittance of a pension at age 60 crying they've not enough money to pay the monthly payments....https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Thai-te ... ehold-debt
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by the-monk » October 12, 2018, 10:09 pm

Good day-evening. Your link does not work... Please post again. Thanks.


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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by mech_401 » October 14, 2018, 2:08 pm

there must be quite a lot of foreclosures or
repossessions. maybe 6-8 months? ago they
opened a large auto auction off nongbua park

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by FrazeeDK » October 15, 2018, 11:55 am

drive on any of the roads going out of Udon and you'll see used car lots everywhere. Many of them are usurious money lenders who, when the borrower can't pay, snatch up their vehicle which was surety for the loan...Big business, big money with many of the car lot "associates" being rather burly fellows ...
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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by saint » October 15, 2018, 12:14 pm

Rather a sweeping statement .
Do you have any proof to back up you statement ? Would you like to name any of them ?
No , i thought not .

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by tamada » October 16, 2018, 5:49 am

saint wrote:
October 15, 2018, 12:14 pm
Rather a sweeping statement .
Do you have any proof to back up you statement ? Would you like to name any of them ?
No , i thought not .
Which particular post are you upset about?

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by saint » October 16, 2018, 7:23 am

The one before mine by FDK

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Re: Three-Quarters Of Bangkok Residents Are In Debt, Says Survey

Post by tamada » October 16, 2018, 11:57 pm

saint wrote:
October 16, 2018, 7:23 am
The one before mine by FDK
If you mean FDK's reference to the presence of 'repo yards' in Udon then yes, I have seen a couple as well. The fact that they looked quite similar to US ones with high fences, normally closed gates and are shoehorned into low-rent plots with a narrow frontage caught my attention.

Now if FDK is simply referencing the roadside tents flogging used cars with less than favorable payment terms then yes, there's plenty of them as well. Whether they all resort to nefarious financing and onerous collection practices,I wouldn't know. But I would suspect that by the very market they cater to, most of them can. They are still pretty much an unregulated business and can do what's necessary.

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