Monday, February 7, 2011

Ujrah Scheme for my PTPTN loan

I have received the contract via email from the PTPTN authority for close to 2 months already. I kept procrastinating on effort to read through the 21 pages document and to decide on whether to revise the agreement or not. Now that the dateline is approaching, I am forced to decide.
The 21 pages document comprised of 1 page of checklist, 5 pages of authorization and payment forms, 9 pages of loan agreement and 6 pages of guarantor agreement.
As I wasn't that familiar with the Islamic scheme, I decided to google for it. This was an interesting article I got from the search.
It was interesting not because of some fancy terms or the site that hosted it but it was due to those comments received on the post. I wasn't much aware of the poor language used until I scanned through the comments. I agreed with most on SS's average English(*average considering that I detected some incorrect tenses) but thanked him for spelling out our concerns bravely.
I would consider myself as an active internet user. I read and write a lot here. But I do not see how one can improve their grammar by reading online. Reading online can sometime bring more cons than pros if you are not selective about the pages you browse. Generally people tend to use broken English and abbreviations on the cyber space. Our command of the language are mold over the years in school and in our daily conversation. Things do not happen overnight.
So I would blame this on our education system. Our system has failed us over the years. We, the Generation Y are relatively poorer than our predecessor. Now that we are behind track, we should seriously do something to improve this phenomenon. Let me start off myself by reading more news articles online and cut down those status updates on Facebook. The cyber social network is killing the beauty of the language.
Back on my earlier discussion for this post, my analysis shows that the scheme is a gift but the terms and conditions are rights violator empowerment medium. Agreeing to the 1% charges would means that I grant the agency all rights to access my private details as well as my guarantors (*both my parents) details on all agencies they deemed necessary. Why would the agency need so much details? It would be less harmful if they are only granted access to our financial report through the Bank Negara. Why does the clause say 'mana-mana agensi'? Which agencies do they meant here?
I have concerns and worries but I am just an ordinary Malaysian. I ask myself 'Which is the correct channel for us to raise our concern?, What is the correct procedure?, Would our concern be heard?'. Finally 'Am I flogging a dead horse?'.

2 comments:

szewan62 said...

the interest rate calculation between the 2 system is different. The old 3% is interest on the current balance while the new 1% is interest on the total loan. Which means the new system will have the interest of the whole lump sum charge on you regardless of how much you have paid.
Besides that with the new system, we no longer enjoy the RM500 interest free (applicable for science stream only).
Here are some calculation I did, *both based on Average Payment Rate(Kadar Purata - same amount throughout the duration) for total loan of RM28k (*with RM4k suppose to be interest free for science stream student) over 180 installments
Old 3%
Total installment
= (RM187.96x179 installments) + RM188.26(last installments)
= RM33833.10
Interest payable
= RM33833.10 - 28000.00
= RM5833.10

New 1%
Total Installment
= RM178.89x180 installments
= RM32200.20
Interest payable
= RM32200.20 - 28000.00
= RM4200.20

Note that sticking to the old scheme may induce less or more cost at some point. You have choice when and how much to pay unlike the new scheme. You can pay less when you are tight on budget or pay more when you have extra. Then the total interest may differ accordingly.

Besides that you can also opt for Kadar progresif on the old scheme. However the applicable interest is more. But if you are to consider the inflation, then it may be worth while. You get to pay less than the installment of average payment rate for the first 5 year.

So from the calculation, the difference is not that much between the average interest rate of the 1% and 3%. RM1632.90 over 15 years. Now it is up to you to decide if your privacy worth the extra 1k++

szewan62 said...

besides there is no guarantor involves and dont need my waris waris to make my payment in case of my decease.

and best is that I do not have any travel restriction.