As money lending businesses continue to grow fast across the world, it is becoming harder to identify illegal and legal money lenders in Singapore.

These are helpful tips that everyone needs to know about when it comes to approaching different financiers. The following tips will help you find among many lenders that may be licensed money lender or unauthorised lenders. Read below:

Do Not Disclose Your Sing Pass Details On the Phone

The amount of information available on the citizen portals that can be accessed by using SingPass details is too big to be let placed into the hands of an inexperienced and uncertified lender. If anyone asks you to disclose your SingPass details over the phone, it may be an attempt to commit fraud. No one should unveil their SingPass login details to a third party through a phone. Such crucial info for personal account access will allow illegal moneylenders to use it to tamper with your account. SingPass is used as a verification method for the borrower’s income as well as working status to determine the ability to get a loan. Essentially, SingPass verification should be done by yourself online and not discussed over a phone call.

Research To Know Your Lender Better Before Taking A Loan

First, you can check whether a lender is licensed or not by using some sites. There are lots of details including license number that have to be confirmed to ensure that you are dealing with the right lender. That is important because some unregistered financiers unlawfully operate under names of licensed lenders. If you ignore this step, you could end up getting a loan with poor conditions, making it hard for authorities to help as you might have already signed a contract. Read reviews about the services of the lender as it can be of help to know what other customers think of the lenders.

Legal Moneylenders Do Not Perform Telemarketing Or Send SMS

For marketing purposes, SMS is one of the best ways to go, but when used in loan services, it can be seen as a sort of scam. Based on different governing rules, money lending services in different countries may be restricted from using telemarketing or SMS to advertise their services. Unlicensed moneylenders may copy the writing style of banks to reach out to potential customers. Another method they use may be to add their contact details and mimic the names of registered companies to confuse customers and lead them to shady deals.

Licensed Moneylenders Do Not Do Online Bank Transfers

Most money lenders assure their existing and potential customers of advance cash through the bank account or instant bank transfer. Unauthorised lenders use instant/online bank transfer to avoid some necessary paperwork. A legal money lender will guide the borrowers on all required paperwork and will often call the borrower to visit their offices. That helps in the verification process from both ends as well as loan application facilitation process. You are advised not to take any offer or deal where a lender is offering instant or online bank transfer as that could be a scam.