Utang culture In the Philippines: Debunking the stereotype from borrowing money

“Pa-utang naman.”

Hearing this sentence always leaves a bad taste in our mouth. It’s like you are about to commit a serious crime whenever you blurt out these two Filipino words. What makes borrowing money in the Philippines a bad habit?

The negative notion about borrowing money is deeply rooted to accounts of people running away from the responsibility of returning their borrowed money. It created a stigma that borrowing money is also considered throwing your money on dead investments because there’s no guarantee that it will be returned. However, pangungutang as locals call it, is also synonymous to asking for help but, it happened to be in a financial situation. Looking into the context of asking for help, is it really bad to ask for help whenever you need one? Let’s look at these perspectives whenever considering the idea of asking for financial help to break the existing stereotype of utang culture in the Philippines.

Financial Maturity

Ask for help when you need one not because of the slightest inconvenience. Sometimes, people tend to ask other people to lend them some extra cash just because of the slightest inconveniences. In handling money, you need to account everything starting from your bills, dues, and other expenses. Overspending on things you consider as ‘wants’ would always end in a bad note for your savings thus, it will be really counterproductive if you will not meet your budget objectives if you will ask other people to indirectly pay for your debt through your loan.

Borrow money that you know you can return

If it is inevitable to borrow money, then, by all means do so especially if it will help you organize your finances. However, borrowing money also entails responsibility. Plan and account your expenses so you will only borrow the exact money that you will need. With a smaller amount of loan, the easier to pay them and get them off your shoulder.

Accountability Of course, asking people to extend some financial help is easy. Once you have received their positive response from your request, it is just a basic human decency to keep your promise and follow your own end. Paying on time will not only allow you to build better connections from people you have asked for help but, it will also increase your reliability as a consistent payer. Borrow from the right people If all hell’s loose, then borrow from the right people whose main job is to lend money or better yet borrow from entities that provide the financial services that you are specifically looking for. There are a lot of options to choose from when finding the perfect loan product that you want to avail. You can either borrow from a bank, government entities, and other private financial institutions. These entities are built to serve every funding needs of almost everyone around the Philippines. One of the best option to ask for financial help is through online loans because most online loans offer easy and hassle free applications. One of the best online loan service provider is the peer-to-peer online funding platform, Blend PH. Blend PH offers online loans that any type of funding you are looking for whether it may be a salary loan, fast loan, personal loan, franchise loan, and even seafarer loan. A variety of options to choose from, and since these loans are available through online application, it is definitely accessible anywhere in the Philippines. Log on to www.blend.ph to discover how these loans work, and maybe it is the answer to what you are looking for. Knowing these four key tips when asking for financial help, you will definitely break down the negative stigma of pangungutang. Asking financial help is okay and it will be more okay when you can reciprocate the help given to you by being accountable and responsible. Look at this way, it is better to hear a sweet and thankful response than hear a snide remark. “Salamat, friend! Sa susunod ulit!”