the moral of the story is NEVER EVER borrow from
loansharks!
Explore alternatives.
If you have insurance plans, some of these plans allow for
withdrawal of cash at difficult times.
If you have shares, try to liquidate them.
If you have a flat, rent out a room.
If you do not have all of the above, and no job, find a job. Any
job. There are jobs in Singapore that no one wants to do, such as
dishwashing, clearing dishes at hawker centres. These are decent
jobs that offer you a pay.
The encounter from the writer is similar to a friend of mine in
the past. He borrowed from a legal finance company. But it ended up
that his bank account info was somehow made known to an unlicensed
moneylender who credits money into his bank account, and thereafter
starts to harass him for moneny, even after the last repayment. In
any case, they will not want to terminate the business. They will
keep giving you money.
Somehow our police has been effective against a lot of crimes,
but not against loansharking, which I cannot understand why. Maybe
it is really very complicated network of crooks.
In any case, I feel that the writer should be responsible to
clear the mess left by him and not leave the new owner to bear the
brunt of his past actions. It is very unfair that new occupants are
being harassed for something which they did not deserve.
I hope one day all the loansharks can be eliminated once and for
all.
SGX says there is $68m worth of unclaimed
shares, dividends
Someone is $1.2 m
richer
How to find out if you're the one? See
chart at right
Report by KOH HUI
THENG
Say "ho ho ho" if
you are the "$1.2 million man" because Christmas (or your year-end
bonus) has come early.
You will get that tidy windfall despite your forgetfulness.
How do you know if you are The One? You must have
invested your hard-earned money some years back.
And you must have forgotten about the dividends
from your investments.
Now, the Singapore Exchange (SCX) wants you to
claim your money. Or it will be returned to the companies that
issued the dividends.
You would be one of 89,000 investors who have money
coming to them, said SGX in a statement yesterday. On paper, these
investors are holding on to about $68 million in unclaimed shares
and dividends.
That includes the person who is about to be $1.2
million richer - the largest single unclaimed amount this time.
Among the 89,000 are:
About 15,000 investors who own $14.6 million of
Singtel shares and dividends.
They have no Central Depository accounts and had
bought the shares at $2 each in the company's 1993 initial public
offering.
The shares have returned more than twice that
amount since.
• Another
74,000 are shareholders who have yet to claim $53.7 million in
dividends, which is in SGX safe-keeping.
They cannot be contracted and did not cash their
dividend cheques. Unclaimed dividends are returned to the relevant
listed companies after six years.
RAISING AWARENESS
Besides locating the rightful owners, SGX executive
vice-president Chew Sutat said the exercise will help to make
Singaporeans more aware of the role that share investment can play
in their financial planning.
He said: "We hope to draw attention (to the fact
that) investing in the equity market brings about returns."
SGX's head of retail investors Lynn Gaspar said:
"Singaporeans work very hard for their money, but we have to make
our money work harder for us."
To encourage investors to come forward, SGX is
waiving the administrative fee for the re-issuance of dividend
cheques and dividend crediting until Jan 26.
To check if you own any unclaimed assets, go to
www.sgx.com/mygateway or call
6589-8039 during office hours.
He received $100,000
Private school operator Winson Choo, 49, was among the investors
SGX managed to trace down.
He received a phonecall from SGX about three months
ago. At stake: An estimated $100,000 dividends.
Mr Choo told The New Paper: "I was very surprised
when they reminded me. I'm just a small fry."
He knew about the money but was "too lazy" to do
anything about the accumulated dividends. Paralysed after suffering
a stroke in 2002, the Serangoon North resident also found it a
hassle to deposit cheques.
"There are no facilities in my estate I have to
take a cab to Ang Mo Kio Central for the quick cheque deposit
service," he said.
After applying for the Direct Crediting Service, Mr
Choo's money was credited into his account within the week. He
intends to park the money in a foreign currency account.
"It feels wonderful to get back my money after so
many years. The staff did a good job."
News, The News Paper, November 27 2013, Pg 8
