Loan Sharks are even harassing factory owners over workers’ debts

[Gottfrid]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s police revealed that some money lending rackets are charging interest at up to 60% per month on loans.

Ok, so that means they know about it. How would it be to put a stop to it, or will that make a too big dent in the wallet?

[Orinoco]

7 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

I agree it is but that’s the way of the world,  it runs on credit businesses, governments etc etc 

yes, for some not all.

Maybe i'm just old, but, i earned it before i spent it

all my life, only exception was a mortgage on property 

 

 

[Simple Jack]

Imagine the cluster **** if gambling were made legal.

[stoner]

4 hours ago, joloit said:

Work hard and ask for your wage.

ill go out on a limb and say you had a few more options in life than most of these people. 

 

easy to say work hard pull yourself up by the bootstraps and all that...when your bootstraps are fine quality. 

 

 

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, SuwadeeS said:

I remember, that Prayut ordered a crackdown on them....

So, that did not work 

 

He is an unelected soldier trying to be a PM who with the rest of his soldiers order crackdowns all the time, many only lasting 24 hrs, probably just to let people know he is still there. He must be about the biggest joke in world politics.

[jerrymahoney]

And as the Mamas & Papas sang:

 

Baby it's true; the joke's on you

[Orinoco]

22 minutes ago, Excel said:

And I'm guessing that was by far the biggest example of your claim that you earned it before you spent it, not ? So your pompous statements that do not reflect the financial ability of possibly hundreds of million of people, fell at the first hurdle by your own admission. Where I come from we call that hypocrisy, what term do you use "aah but I am different to everybody else" ? ????

Well that's a laugh.

Buying my fist house for cash would have been a very long wait. and also going up in price as the years go on before i would have had the correct amount.

What a stupid comparison you have made, to the many toss pots of Thailand, taking money to have a new pick up today. instead of earning the dosh in the first place.

and using the old pick for the next few years.

Sure some people end up in the financial dodo. through no fault of there own. but most, its, just big face time.

look at me what i have and so on.

 

Pompous i am not.

i live in the real world

Not the BS one most Thais live in,  then cry about it latter. when the boys come knocking at the doors.

Please shut your mouse. 

 

Ps, just seen you have edited the pompous bit out.

To late. i got it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Orinoco

[ezzra]

An example of a typical situation, my long time house keeper's son got himself into some troubles with the police and received a summons to appear in court, but he had to be bailed himself out first for 40k that he didn't have so i have lent my house keepr the funds to help her son and later on another 20k fine the court put on him, if i wasn't around they would go to the loan sharks, now the son is repaying me 5k a month, i was happy to help...

Edited July 26, 2022 by ezzra

[metisdead]

An inflammatory baiting post and the inflammatory replies have been removed.

[Kalasin Jo]

4 hours ago, Orinoco said:

Earn it before you spend it.

Nah, it's just not the Thai way.

Big face,  is more important to them.

 

 

It's not really the western way either ...and it goes back a long way.... remember the Access credit card ad? ' take the waiting out of wanting '. It's common in the west to have multiple maxed out cards and when that route is exhausted the loan sharks are waiting for you there too. 

[moe666]

4 hours ago, Orinoco said:

Earn it before you spend it.

Nah, it's just not the Thai way.

Big face,  is more important to them.

 

 

For many it is paying the rent and then put food on the table, not much face in all that

[BusyB]

5 hours ago, Iamfalang said:

Education system fails them.

Companies pay nothing.

Hope fades.

YouTube and Tik Tok shows nice things

Splash a little bad luck..

 

now to borrow money.    Probably after all the credit cards are maxxed out.

 

Loan sharks have to be the absolute last resort.  Fake Gofundme has to be better....lol

Loan sharks are always the last resort.

[AustinRacing]

I have sympathy for the victims but in principle I’m on the side of the loan sharks. You go them. You agree with their terms. They hand you the money right away. It is you who has broken the contract. 

[BusyB]

3 hours ago, Iron Tongue said:

Neither do payday loans.

 

In practice, loan sharks are not as violent as you think.  Since their profit comes from the weekly "vig", injured debtors cannot work.

Loan sharks do things like harrass your family, take your collateral, and now show up at work it appears.

Correct, but it's no life living under the threat of violence, and where every penny you make is extorted from you - without even paying off the actual loan.

I've known someone who was paying more 'interest' than they earned in a month.

The victims are usually decent hard working people. 

And all too frequently cops ARE behind it. So where do you turn?

[khunpa]

My ex-wife’s sister in BKK had a (for her) large credit-card debt, which was making her life alone with two kids miserable and she would never be able to pay off.

 

As it was a small amount for me I helped her pay it all off, with the result that she later quit her job in BKK, moved back to the village and is now living off her son sending her money every month. Last I heard she has now somehow even managed to get into debt again.

 

Unfortunately, can’t say helping her out changed her life to the better… Can’t fix lazy and stupid.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by khunpa

[BusyB]

3 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Filth who pray on the vulnerable with countless articles on the violence they inflict when they are not paid on time

Even as they lend the money they know damn fine the victims can't pay it back, and basically they attach themselves as parasites to the income flows of a low earning population who can never pay back the principle.

[BusyB]

2 hours ago, TKDfella said:

I, like other expats, have in the past and presently tried to help (local) Thais. But there is, and has to be, a limit on what we might/could do and in some cases might actually be detrimental. In the end it is the local government who should deal with it. The Thai tourism industry all but collapsed and the government had no plan B, with both proprietors and workers now suffering. 

100% agree.

[BusyB]

3 hours ago, FarangFB said:

This is the thing, pretty much every broke person I know has spent on something they don't need. Buying things way outside their budget, gambling, partying too much.

 

 

The broke people I know own small Honda's to get to work, and the cheapest mobiles because they need the connectivity. Yes there are the profligate. They are a minority in my experience. I don't know a single person who's done something like that. The people I know are happy to have enough to put in the bike's tank to get to work. 

 

Afterthought:  and are deeply grateful to have a job again after the pandemic disaster that ruined them financially and sent them to the loansharks because the government didn't give a fruit fly's fart about them.

Edited July 26, 2022 by BusyB

[BusyB]

David Graeber's "Debt - The First 5000 Years" is a great read. Basically the history of money and the origins of debt.

[Dont confuse me]

It really comes down to the majority of workers  receiving inadequate wages a lot of these factory workers are on less than €500 a month with overtime!

The law expects them to have vehicle insurance wear crash helmets etc etc.

The majority of Thais would possibly do this if they were paid a fair wage !

Whilst not condoning the actions of the loan sharks in the long run it may jolt the company owners to give pay rises.

[BusyB]

59 minutes ago, ezzra said:

An example of a typical situation, my long time house keeper's son got himself into some troubles with the police and received a summons to appear in court, but he had to be bailed himself out first for 40k that he didn't have so i have lent my house keepr the funds to help her son and later on another 20k fine the court put on him, if i wasn't around they would go to the loan sharks, now the son is repaying me 5k a month, i was happy to help...

The interest to the sharks would have been much much more than 5k/month 555. Lucky guy and well done you.

[BusyB]

22 minutes ago, AustinRacing said:

I have sympathy for the victims but in principle I’m on the side of the loan sharks. You go them. You agree with their terms. They hand you the money right away. It is you who has broken the contract. 

And they know from the get go that you won't be able to pay it off as well. They're parasites, simples. They prey on the vulnerable. 

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Many people in Thailand have fallen by the wayside of traditional banking arrangements and have therefore developed poor credit scores.

Or people who have never been able to obtain banking facilities at all, turn to street money lenders and a world that, in Thailand, has gotten more sinister over the last ten years.

The money divide, some with billions many with zero.

[BusyB]

22 minutes ago, khunpa said:

My ex-wife’s sister in BKK had a (for her) large credit-card debt, which was making her life alone with two kids miserable and she would never be able to pay off.

 

As it was a small amount for me I helped her pay it all off, with the result that she later quit her job in BKK, moved back to the village and is now living off her son sending her money every month. Last I heard she has now somehow even managed to get into debt again.

 

Unfortunately, can’t say helping her out changed her life to the better… Can’t fix lazy and stupid.

 

 

 

At least now you know.

You still did the right thing.

The only thing I'd say is that one should never lend money in cases like that. always give it (at least in your mind). That way if you actually get it back it's gravy. If not, it doesn't matter, you gave someone a present.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, joloit said:

What we are seeing here is the end result of parenting and educational omissions. Work hard and ask for your wage. Only in this order will life work!! I feel sorry for the victims of these leeches!!

What we are seeing is the bottom rung of the ladder expected to survive on around 300 baht per day... and choose between eating or paying utility bills.

The top rung has a difficult choice of a new Mercedes or BMW

[BusyB]

9 minutes ago, Dont confuse me said:

It really comes down to the majority of workers  receiving inadequate wages a lot of these factory workers are on less than €500 a month with overtime!

The law expects them to have vehicle insurance wear crash helmets etc etc.

The majority of Thais would possibly do this if they were paid a fair wage !

Whilst not condoning the actions of the loan sharks in the long run it may jolt the company owners to give pay rises.

I agree with you that the majority of Thais would wear helmets etc. if they had the cash. Wages in LOS are abysmal, for ridiculously long hours that most on these forums have never had to work - at least for a living.

 

Apart from the occasional socially minded like Aldi, who've just hiked UK wages of their own volition, only unions get wage hikes. Regardless of what all the liberation Trumpets'll tell ya! The factory owners'll will either get the state to clamp down or come to some arrangement with the parasites and become another source of income for them - both those alternatives are cheaper than a wage rise.

[Orinoco]

45 minutes ago, moe666 said:

For many it is paying the rent and then put food on the table, not much face in all that

Yes this is true, but not for all.

You ever been around Thai's and there gambling. ?

Plenty of these debts to the loan sharks are from this.

I know of card games where, pick up keys, condo chanotes, gold jewelry all went in the pot on a card game.

Also plenty of these debts are from buying stuff they just can't afford, but still go sign on the dotted line. they don't change there standard of living, but just carry on spending .

Sure feel sorry for some. but not many.

 

 

 

 

[BKKTRAVELER]

2 hours ago, sletraveler said:

My sister in law owed enough to a loan shark at her factory work place so the interest alone took nearly her entire paycheck.   She couldn’t pay any principal.   I lent her the money to pay it off and she paid me back.  

Good on you to help her and good on her to pay you back. Simple scheme, but happens too rarely..

[John Drake]

4 hours ago, itsari said:

Garnishment of wages take place with huge penalties for default . Better to get a bash over the head 

Depends on the state. In Texas, for example, they cannot.

[moogradod]

I wonder if there is actually a law restricting the interest one can take for a loan (as it is in other countries) - regardless of enforcement. Enforcement may be up to the borrower (However who is stupid enough to make a loan under these conditions ?)

Edited July 26, 2022 by moogradod