Various fintech companies offering unsecured online loans have been operating for several years now. The ease of applying for loans with just a selfie and an ID card photo is certainly tempting to many people. And the 'aggressive collection' incidents affecting friends of borrowers who knew nothing about the loans have actually been happening for quite some time.
Why do I say this? Because I've been monitoring various fintech customer reviews on the Play Store since late 2017, and there have indeed been people experiencing unpleasant incidents.
This month, my extended family also experienced bad things with aggressive collection.
Fuck them.
But still, it's important to understand that not all collection systems implemented by online loan fintech startups are like this. Collection processes are typically divided into several stages.
I once borrowed 2 million Rupiah from a fintech with high ratings on the Play Store. I did this when I was still using an Android phone and genuinely needed money.
The collection process? Quite polite.
Initially, I was reminded 3 days before the due date in a gentle tone, essentially just 'reminding' me. Then on the due date, I paid off the loan but was contacted again shortly after making the payment. At that time, I thought:
"Hmm, maybe the system isn't real-time, so my loan still appears unpaid in their system even though I just paid it off."
And sure enough, the collector immediately apologized and checked the payment status. Borrower statuses are also classified in fairly understandable categories. There are those with good credit scores because they always pay loans on time, and there are those with default scores or payment failures. Usually, defaulting customers already have bad records, so when applying for loans, insurance, and similar products, they're rejected.
Looking at its function, debt collection indeed has a fairly broad scope, from simply reminding to forcibly collecting because promises that were initially agreed upon weren't fulfilled.
Borrowing is a two-way promise
A promise to provide a loan, and a promise to repay it.
Regarding collection etiquette, unpleasant experiences are often encountered by borrowers who fail to repay their loans. I’ve read several discussion from the collector's perspective from public media and it’s still baffling. Due to a lack of financial literacy, people who borrow money feel entitled to delay repayment. Some even resist when being asked to pay.
Customers need to be aware of this too. It's not simply a matter of "Well, there's no law saying I have to pay, hehe."
One thing that still puzzles me about Indonesian mindsets
Privacy of data.
This has long been a top priority, but in other countries, not in Indonesia.
Here, data privacy become a topic of discussion because of various unpleasant incidents — it backwards process show us how bureaucracy works, lol. If traced, data privacy breaches have caused many people to experience unpleasant things, from theft to kidnapping, harassment, and various other criminal acts.
Once again, uploading various aspects of your personal life on social media isn't a wise step. You might think you want to keep providing good content for your followers, but I don't recommend losing privacy and suffering negative impacts later.
Personal identities such as ID cards, passports, tax numbers, credit cards, and even student cards should be private information that you protect.
You wouldn't want someone contacting you just to get acquainted because they found your phone number or even home address on social media, would you?
I remember back then before ‘rona there was a case of data privacy violation was committed by fintech but I forget the name of it, ugh.
The fintech advertised a campaign featured clear and complete photos of ID cards. I don't know their intention. Perhaps they wanted to communicate that their product only "Requires an ID card for instant loan disbursement."
In my opinion, this is a wrong move.
Very wrong.
Whether using dummy ID cards (not information from real people's ID cards) or not, this encourages people to spread their personal information in the digital realm. What if someone uploads their ID card photo on Facebook page, and someone takes advantage of that moment?
And yes, people still use Facebook.
What if someone understands it as "Oh, applying for a loan just needs an ID card photo" and then mentioning the product account on social media, along with their ID card photo?
Though simple, using content that displays personal information is a very wrong step.
The point is, when uploading content on social media, adopt a mindset to communicate various things clearly. Don't upload content that could lead to incorrect customer behavior.
Indeed, many solutions should be solved by startups (as per the jargon of various startup players in Indonesia), one field being finance, which indeed forms the fintech industry. But keep in mind, as a brand, startups don't just have the task of solving problems and presenting good products. Clearly communicating vision and mission in the digital realm should also be a priority.
People don't care about good products that solve problems if their use isn't communicated properly and correctly.
It's like a relationship analogy. If your partner has a good character, likes to save money, is elegant and/or good-looking, but can't express their desires well and clearly, what would you do?
Break up immediately?
Don't do that!
There are still many other potentials in your partner that haven't been 'explored' (hehe).
The wise step in responding to the above analogy is to provide feedback, ask your partner to communicate clearly. Don't just boycott and break up.
In startups, there are professions like UX researchers or community managers who function to listen to customer complaints, then implement various better features or strategies going forward. Even if data privacy is still a primary consideration for a potential customer in deciding to use a particular service, startups must also prove that customer data is in safe hands.
Technological developments that gave birth to machine learning, big data, AI and various buzzwords that our gov likes don't automatically make society feel secure. Communicating customer security with confusing terminology only confuses them further.