Change of Credit card rules in Singapore

Source: CNA

In a nut shell, the new changes are

• Limiting the 'credit' to 12x months of income across all credit cards, credit lines (and all unsecured credit)
• If it's hit then no more 'credit'
• Banks need to ensure it.

More info, check MAS website.

But I feel the 12x months income is still pretty high. Most of the unsecured credit facilities charge "2% per month" or around that period. So for example, if a person takes 12x months, then he would end up paying almost 24% of his monthly pay for "interest". Not even minimum balance. If we take a fair assumption of $50 then it still stays around 25% for "credit card payments". Then what about others?

I would guess MAS to further tighten this and IMHO, keeping it to 6 months or lower would be better. Especially with the 'high' interest rates.

Revolving Credit - Singapore. Staggering 5 Billion or 5,000 per average card holder

OCBC introduced some improvements to it's customers. Whether you are a savings bank customer or checking customer you might have seen it in their Internet banking.

First and foremost, I should give the credit to OCBC management team to think about user friendliness and to improve their IT systems. I can see their efforts and I should comment their engineers and managers. Kudos OCBC.

I can say this is the best interface among the singapore banks

Now, the interesting item is "where do I stand" thingy. So here goes couple of screenshots I copied from OCBC. They are showing based on different profiles what is the average debt on Credit cards or overdraft. So it's really shocking to see the debt of SGD 5,000+ average.

Then I did a search and found out from a news article in ASIAONE, that the average debt is SGD 5,034 in 2012. Total roll over is almost SGD 5 Billion.

On 5000 rollover, a person end up paying 2% interest charge per month which is equal to SGD 100/month. No wonder banks are such profitable entities. I won't blame them but the people who spend money unnecessarily should be responsible for their actions. There are cases where there is a real need and as a last option people may have used credit but in general, don't use rollover credit. It's worse than slavery. Just avoid it and reach out the Gov. I'm sure our gov can help people who are in real need. Go for it or talk to friends, relatives.