Loans

Typically banks do not refinance outstanding loan amounts below $100,000. At that amount, it would not make sense to the homeowner either, since refinancing incurs legal fees and valuation fees and the amount you potentially save in the long-term barely covers these upfront costs. If you're on a bank loan with less than $100,000 and your interest rate is particularly high (e.g. 2.0% in 2020), then consider approaching your bank to reprice. Repricing incurs less upfront costs (because you're staying in the same bank so there's less paperwork involved). Hope this helps!

I'm assuming you are referring to HDB BTO because that's what was tagged. You will need to pay HDB the downpayment within 4 months of the date of the Option to Purchase and within 1 month of signing the Agreement for Lease. This timeline is regardless of whether you go for a HDB loan or a bank loan, actually!

Hi anon, Investment returns are not guaranteed. Your timeline to repay is guaranteed. (i.e. you have to repay in 2021, or else face a penalty - this is also guaranteed). One year is too short a time frame to have a reasonable chance of getting some returns. Plus, even if you had $30K set aside for the loan and made 10%, that is just $3K, which you could earn in a year by taking on side jobs such as tuition. Probably better to keep the funds safe, pay off your loan, be debt free, and start working on your finances then.

Before you graduate, you will be receiving letter from bank asking you how you would like to pay off the loan. I followed the letter and paid quite a huge chunk off without any penalty.

Hi there! I feel that the decision u will make will depend on factors such as the interest rate and your risk appetite. If you're able to generate more than the interest rate on your debt, then you shouldn't use it to pay off the loan, but instead invest that lump sum to generate more returns that will not only offset the loan interest, and u get to keep the excess returns. Depending on the interest u must pay, the type of financial instrument u will need varies, from the average high yield savings account to high yield dividend stocks. The risk of the investment is something u must consider. If u are unable to find an investment that can effectively cover the interest payment, or u are unsure of the returns, u are better off clearing the loan and minimizing the interest paid. Something u must take note of is whether u will need this money for other reasons. It is not very good for example to use your emergency savings or savings set aside for other purposes to clear the loan as your cash position may become very vulnerable. If u have money leftover after having a strong emergency fund, u can then use it to repay the loan. Also some loans charge fees if you repay early. Do take this into account! In general, being debt free is good but some debt is ok and shouldn't be rushed to get cleared as u can leverage it to generate returns. A bit long winded, but I hope this helps yr decision making process.

Did your friend use this feature? https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/loans/personal-loans/cashline-auto-top-up And the cash repayment was done at the branch direct to the Cashline account? If the cash payment was made to Cashline account in full, the balance should have been $0. Not quite sure how your friend could have mixed up the different accounts. Check with the bank about what actually happened? Maybe the family should have paid and requested the Cashline account to be closed. It seems that your friend might have an issue with managing her money and should not have any loan facility be made available to her.

Hi anon, Since you're taking a bank loan and are planning to sell the condo before fully servicing it, that means that you'll defo be hit with early repayment fees . In this case, I would go with whichever loan penalises me with the lower early repayment fees. You'll be surprised... a loan with a shorter tenure doesn't necessarily mean that the penalty fees will be lower... With regard to paying by cash or CPF... if you can deploy your cash into investments or etc, and earn more than the CPF floor interest rate of 2.5% then it's probably a better idea to use your CPF to service the loan. If you can't... then it's better to just keep the money in your CPF to earn that guaranteed 2.5% (or 4% if you move it over to your Special Account; take note that this is irreversible). And use your cash instead.

Hello! I'm assuming you're using the HDB loan your flat. if I'm not wrong, you can change the allocation amount at any time you wish. According to the CPF website, in order to do that: 1. Bring along your identity card to the HDB branch office which is managing your flat. 2. Complete the 'Application for withdrawal under Public Housing Schemes' (HPS/9). 3. HDB will forward the completed form to the Board for processing. Hope this helps! :-)

Hello Anon :) Congratulations on your new home! Yes, you can switch immediately to a bank loan as HDB concessionary loans do not have a lock-in period. There is also no penalty involved if you do so. However, I would caution you to think carefully about this decision as it is irreversible . Once you have switched over to the bank loan, you cannot switch back to the HDB loan. Ouch. So do check out this article before you do so! https://blog.seedly.sg/refinancing-hdb-loan-to-bank-loan-low-interest-rate-considerations/ Hope this helps!

Hey! So the way about this calculation is simple. For various grants, they will always take into account your taxable income. Based on experience, most 13th month and bonus is taken into account as your taxable income, which means that they will be included and taken into consideration when applying for EHG grant. To emphasize on the details of EHG again for the rest reading this question: Who is the EHG for? Couples and families with an average gross monthly household income not exceeding $9,000 . At least one applicant must be working for at least 12 months prior to the flat application. Both HDB BTO and SBF, as well as Resale HDB flats, are eligible. Can check it out here: https://blog.seedly.sg/hdb-cpf-grants-bto-vs-resale-flats#ehg