Struggling to Pay off Your Loans

The first step to managing your debt is to find out your current debt situation. To get an overview of your loans, you can get a credit report that outlines your current outstanding balance, number of loans and credit limit.

In Cambodia, you can request for Personal Credit Report and Financial Health Check from Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), the leading provider of financial information, analytical solutions and credit report. You can then decide on how many years you want to give yourself to pay it off, whether it’s 5 years, 10 years or even longer.

Loan refinancing is typical for mortgage. While some people get annoyed with refinancing their home loan, they don’t know that they can save and gain more when they can find a better choice of their home loan with a new bank.

Do not hesitate to explore the competitive home loan in the market if you are a smart customer. For the period of 15-20 years of mortgage, even 0.5%-1% lower interest rate plus good conditions and benefits earns you a lot of cash.

Credit card can fasten, ease and secure your financial payments in daily lifestyle. However, do not waste or lost any amount of cash due to its penalty. You can avoid being stuck with additional charges such as late payment fees (you can be charged up to 1% or more than this of your outstanding card balance!) by setting up a payment reminder on your phone or computer. 

Planning to use your extra money to clear some of your loans? Here are two well-known strategies you can use: 

• You can pay off the loan with the lowest balance, while maintaining the minimum payment amount on other loans. 

• You can focus on the loan with the highest interest rate and continue paying the minimum amount on other loans.. 

But which one suits you best? The key is to choose a solution that works for your lifestyle and keeps you motivated to continue your debt management journey.

The most important thing to remember is that clearing your debt can take a while, so it is important to stay on track and consistently practice good money management habits to help keep your budget in order. 

This article is brought to you by CIMB Bank as part of our ongoing efforts to raise the level of financial literacy among Cambodians. Financial knowledge and understanding are key to making well-informed and meaningful financial decisions that will improve all our well-being. This, in turn, achieves CIMB Bank’s purpose of advancing customers and society.