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Tag: personal loan

  • Bukalapak Joins Hands With Tanamduit to Sell Mutual Funds Online

    Bukalapak Joins Hands With Tanamduit to Sell Mutual Funds Online

    E-commerce platform Bukalapak has partnered with online investment platform Tanamduit to introduce mutual fund products to first-time retail investors. The partnership will see local asset management firms Bahana TCW Investment Management, Batavia Prosperindo Asset Management and Sucorinvest Asset Management offer five new investment products, ranging from equity to fixed-income funds, on Bukalapak’s mutual funds platform BukaReksa.

    At its launch in January 2017, BukaReksa only featured money market fund products offered by CIMB Principal Asset Management and Mandiri Manajemen Investasi.

    But to capture a larger market, Bukalapak joined hands with finance marketplace Bareksa in December 2017, adding four more asset management firms, Kresna Asset Management, Syailendra Capital, Ciptadana Asset Management and BNP Paribas Investment Partners, to the platform

    BukaReksa now features nine asset management firms offering 21 investment products, compared with Bareksa, which has 31 asset management firms offering 160 investment products.

    “We hope our partnership with Tanamduit can boost financial literacy and investment in the country,” said Destya Danang Pradityo, head of payment and financial services at Bukalapak.

    Through the BukaReksa platform, customers can invest from as little as Rp 100,000 to Rp 1.5 million ($7-$104) in mutual funds.

    Destya said BukaReksa has at least 120,000 registered customers, with around half of them active investors from across the archipelago.

    “We believe online investment will become part of our lifestyles. Our collaboration with Bukalapak forms part of our mission to educate people on the benefits of investing,” said Muhammad Hanif, business development director at Tanamduit.

    With rapid technological development and the growth in online transactions, e-commerce players see opportunities to provide various services, including financial and investment products. This has seen the emergence of fintech startups offering mutual fund investment has been a trend over the past three years.

    Aside from Bukalapak, other online marketplaces also joined hands with Bareksa, such as Tokopedia, which in April this year launched Tokopedia Reksadana, offering mutual funds through local asset management firm Syailendra Capital.

    Another fintech startup, Invisee, has also been offering mutual fund products online in partnership with various asset management firms since last year.

    According to Halim Haryono, deputy director of investment supervision and development at the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the number of people investing in mutual funds increased 16.25 percent year-on-year to about 930,000 by October this year, due to the rise of online mutual fund marketplaces.

    Only about 400,000 people invested in mutual funds in 2016, Halim said.

  • Five Things to Check Before Taking Personal Loan

    Five Things to Check Before Taking Personal Loan

    Personal loan helps everyone in an unexpected financial crisis. Whether it’s an unforeseen expense during a wedding or renovating your home, emergency medical needs, restructuring your debts, starting a small business, etc., a personal loan can help you with immediate resources.

    Here is a list of five things to check before you avail of a personal loan –

    Interest rate offered

    The interest rate can vary depending on your creditworthiness. In addition, interest rates must be reviewed and compared with those of another institution before applying for loans, since interest rates usually vary due to several factors including competition among lenders. In this case, you can benefit from a loan at lesser interest.

    Since personal loans do not carry any security they attract high interest rates. Since there is no guarantee of repayment and nor does the lender have any asset in his possession to sell off the rate of interest is unusually high. As a customer you have to find a loan with lower interest rate to benefit

    Loan tenure

    Make sure that the tenure of the loan is acceptable to you. Loans with very short or long tenure can cause financial loss. You must always select a tenure that is suitable to your needs. A very long tenure would mean low EMI but also you must remember that you will be paying interest for a longer period. Thus your total outflow of interest will be more. Short tenure would mean rapid payback of principal which reduces total interest but makes the EMI expensive. The mean between these two would be best.

    Eligibility

    For being able to receive a personal loan you would have to check your eligibility to receive such a loan. Most banks and financial institutions have a web page with loan eligibility calculator. The amount of personal loan which can be given to you depends on the applicant’s income, age, credit score and other outstanding debts. If the loan is at all provided the loan amount and tenure of loan would depend on the above factors too. These factors vary widely between different financial institutions and it is quite possible that another bank will accept someone who has been refused earlier.

    Capacity to pay back

    It is always best to think calmly about your ability to repay. What is the EMI that you can afford depending on your income and monthly expenses and other commitments. The bank that is providing you with the loan will also carry out similar due diligence. It is of utmost importance that a borrower has sufficient funds to repay the monthly installments.

    Applicable penalties

    Lenders usually charge a fee if there is pre-payment. It is because early repayment prevents the bank from earning interest which they had expected as an income. One must always find a bank with least rate of prepayment penalties. Also watch out for exorbitant processing fees and late payment fines.

    Conclusion

    Take a personal loan only if it is absolutely needed for an emergency. It makes no sense to go on a vacation by paying exorbitant interest rates. Use personal loans judiciously and pay them back as soon as possible.

    Since a personal loan is associated with high interest rates, it is always advisable to obtain a personal loan only if you need money urgently and do not want to provide other assets as collateral. Personal loans are not secured, which means that nothing has been given as collateral.