Tuesday 30 April 2013

Debt Free, Finally!



30th April 2013 – A date to be remembered in my life. Why? I finally cleared my RM100,000 of debt to bank. All thanks to the most appreciated service from AKPK.

 I still remembered 5 years ago when I suddenly noticed that I am deadly stupid in my personal financial management and arrogantly extravagant-excessive spender behavior had lead me to be drown in RM100,000 of debt in credit card and personal loan. The monthly payment to clear that debt was RM7,000, not even close to be covered by my salary. I was trying to survive by using the ever popular concept of “dig hole, cover hole” but to no avail. I was basically crawling (metaphor) from bank to bank to beg them to convert the debt to term loan and reduce the monthly payment and more than once was scolded away by the “ever-so-polite” collection agent of the bank.

It was June 2008 when BNM took me in its cradle through the Debt Management Program of AKPK. I did heard all the bad stories of black listing in AKPK but trust me, when you stuck in a debt of RM100,000, the idea of black list or bankruptcy suddenly did not sound so bad.

When I finally approved to be in the DMP of AKPK, every bad stories and rumors that I heard were slowly dissolve away. The very first time called by my counselor or financial consultant from AKPK, he said “Nothing to worry about. Your case is really not that serious. We can manage and settle this debt in no time”, which was most appreciated comforts that direly needed that time after the nightmares I had while working with bank’s collection agent.

For 5 years with AKPK, I surrendered half of my salary monthly (much much less than the minimum payment of RM7,000) to pay the debt. AKPK stand by me, shielding me from the rudeness of bank’s collection agent and lawyers, in his word “Not to worry. Just ignore them and keep paying the monthly payment”.

True to his word, I should not have to worry, since with the discipline to pay the debt had lead me to finally be debt free from the credit cards and personal loans. In the tenure of 5 years, I also were given the time and opportunity to reconstruct my personal finance, lifestyle and overall of my life in order to be smarter in financial and be more cunning towards banks “services”. Now, like phoenix resurrect from the ash, I shine again, proudly to be a better, financial-smarter person, to breathe the fresh air of debt free life. Let’s enjoy a debt free life everyone!

15 comments:

bebola said...

Alhamdulillah.
Congrats bro..
I'm about to attend akpk briefing and see what dmp has in store for me.
Can u share how much do u set aside for dmp to settle the 100k? it's amazing dude.
Have u checked your ccris, whether AKPK is still being displayed in the report?

Unknown said...

For my case, I able to afford to initially put aside RM2.4k each month for the DMP. I think, for about 3.5 years later, one by one of the debt account manage to be settle, thus the monthly payment also reduce accordingly until everything totally cleared up after 5 years. I meant to check CCRIS, but just recently I full settled my car hire purchase. So maybe next week I verify my CCRIS becoz I want to make the hire purchase also duly updated.

bebola said...

ok. keep it posted.
from my experience, banks will refresh their customer's ccris status to bnm by 15th. (based on cut-off previous month end).

KhassaFaziraNFamily said...

Alhamdulillah...congrats en.kamal..
Just wonder, I'm going to work abroad soon but I'm one of the akpk DMP. Do you have any idea for that. Is there any issue for me to fly. I still remember during briefing last time, the consultant told us that if we're going to work abroad just let them know. Any suggestion en.kamal?

Unknown said...

I managed to check my CCRIS estimated after 3 weeks after receiving AKPK release letter and yes, all my previous debt was totally clean from my record. Amazingly clean sheet when I saw my printout. Such a motivating relief on that.

Unknown said...

KhassaFazira, I suggest you give your AKPK councellor a call. They always open for any discussion.

Shastri said...

Hi Kamal. Thanks for the informative sharing. Just to clarify, does DMP with AKPK impact your CCRIS record even after your complete settlement via AKPK's DMP. Let's say scenario whereby you can complete your debts via DMP in 3 years. Are you able to take up a mortgage loan, credit card or personal loan. Thanks

Unknown said...

Shastri, as long as we are undergoing DMP AKPK, the AKPK tag to all our account affected everywhere, including CCRIS. While under DMP, most likely, none of financial body will allow us to take up new loans. But, as soon as we completed the DMP, AKPK will wipe clean our CCRIS, giving us a blank new CCRIS record. This was not documented anywhere, but that is what happen to me. 2 months after completed DMP, I went to print my CCRIS report, and it was clean blank, nothing was in it.

Unknown said...

Once you are cleared by DMP AKPK, you can take up any new loans as if it was you first time applying loans.

Shastri said...

Thanks bro.

Unknown said...

Bro, can tell me more about AKPK?

Unknown said...

Hi Bro, can I know more DMP AKPK? How can apply it?

Unknown said...

More info of DMP AKPK is available at their official website https://www.akpk.org.my. But if you need my personal advice, you are welcome to share the query here or write to me at kamal7812@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

hi Izmal...thank you very much for your great info...I'm I'm Akpk for 8 years...plan to settle balance all lump sum. How long it will take to clean my crris before I can apply new loan from bank?

Unknown said...

Hi. In regards to CCRIS, for my case, it took about 2 months. Then, the CCRIS will be totally blank without any record what-so-ever. But, as a good practise, blank CCRIS is never a healthy thing for our credit score. So, it is good to take a small safe loan such as credit card, just to have the "fresh" CCRIS to be fill up for a more healthy scoring.

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