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What Every Borrower Should Know

Credit Services & Registry	5292 VIEWS
Credit Services & Registry
5292 VIEWS

Thursday, May 03, 2018 09:05 AM / CR Services

Consumer credit enables you to maintain and potentially enjoy a more comfortable lifestyle. For example, if you need a big screen TV, a washing machine or an air conditioner in your household but you do not have all the money to purchase everything at once, consumer credit enables you to purchase and use all of these items now while you pay back the loan over a period of time, such as 6, 12 or even 24 months.

However, as a responsible borrower, you must manage the amount of debt you take on. It is vitally important, before seeking a loan, to have a steady job or a reliable source of income to enable you to pay back the loan.

Therefore, as a borrower, you have an obligation to repay credit extended to you. Please keep the following in mind to ensure that you meet your credit obligations and can continue to enjoy the quality-of-life benefits of consumer credit for years to come.

Do not over-borrow. That is, do not borrow beyond your ability to repay. For example, if your residual monthly income after you account for all expenses (rent, food, entertainment, savings, etc.) is N50,000, then you cannot afford to take on additional loans that would require you to pay back more than N50,000 per month. In fact, lenders will require you not to exceed a certain level of repayment because they know that you have living expenses for rent, food, medical, clothes, etc.

If you lose your main source of income (your job) and you cannot afford to make your regular loan payments, you should promptly let your creditors know so that they may work out alternate payment plans for you.

Each loan you receive will be based partly on your residual income or ability to pay back the loan, as well as your creditworthiness. If there is no record of you having obtained and properly managed credit before then your first loan may be small. However, by paying back a small loan on schedule and never being late with a payment, you will dramatically improve your creditworthiness so you can soon obtain larger loans.

If you do not pay back your loan on schedule it hurts the lender who gave you the credit. As a result, you will also hurt your own credit score. A lower credit score means lenders will be less likely to extend credit to you. Therefore, failure to make your loan payments as and when due will impair your creditworthiness and your ability to purchase on credit. It is up to you to manage your credit wisely so that you may achieve and maintain lifestyle that good consumer credit enables you to have.

To help you manage your credit wisely, it would be important to know what the lenders know about your credit history. One of the first steps would be to have access to your credit report and review what the report states about your credit history.

To order your personal or business credit report, please click here to download our Self Order Form along with instructions on how to order your credit report from CreditRegistry Services.

CR Services Learning Resources

· Introduction to Credit Scoring

· Focus on Fraud II

· Focus on Fraud

· Collections Analytics

· The Importance of Credit Reporting in the Banking Industry

· Why you need to monitor your portfolio

· The Importance of Risk Based Pricing

· Modern Credit & Risk Management Models

· Credit Bureau & SMEs

· Using Credit Bureau Data

· Effective Debt Collection