Pros and cons of HDB and bank loan?

Hi! My bf and I are looking at purchasing a resale flat and we are deciding on the type of loan to finance the flat.

We have read up about the pros and cons of each but wanted to hear first hand experiences of current homeowners.

Pls share why u chose one type of loan over the other and any other tips to take note of when buying a resale flat for a young couple? Thank you!!!

Netizens’ comments

• Personally prefer HDB loan as there won’t be a early repayment penalty, which should be present for bank loans
• Take a HDB loan first. Once your CPF OA is fatter can take bank loan so minimal fear or defaulting on payment. Save on interest with bank loan.
• The only benefit of a HDB loan is its lower downpayment requirement as compared to a bank loan. So if you do not have enough cash/cpf (especially for the 5% cash) for Bank loan, I see that as the only rational reason for choosing hdb loan. Let’s go point by point:
  Interest rate: Bank loan is lower, hands down. For people concerned about rising interest rates, you can always fix your bank loan interest rate at 1.5% for 5 years, or the longest fixed rate available, then refinance/reprice after lock in period ends. And the re-finance price will almost certainly be lower than hdb loan rate.
  Early repayment: There are different sides on whether one should stretch their home loan as long as possible, ultimately that depends on your risk appetite (I lean towards stretching as long as possible). In any case, you can also repay your bank loan early after the lock in period for a small fee, which is lower than the additional interest you pay for hdb loan.
  Late repayment: If you are financially prudent and have been building up a safety fund, this shouldn’t concern you. Anyways the 30% MSR should have prevented you from overstretching yourself. Then again, if you are financially prudent/saavy, hdb loan should not appeal to you.
• Before deciding on which one, first, the affordability on upfront payment. Bank int rates are much lower than HDB’s. But u need to fork up much much more upfront cash, subject to the banks loan margin vis-a-vis valuation of unit n further subject to your TDSR (60%?). HDB requires much smaller upfront cash but has a higher TDSR (40%?). Google HDB for correct figures quoted here as I m simply flashing from memories. Regardless, the upfront cash difference is quite tidy sum n this is main reason y many opt for HDB loan. If this is a problem, then no choice, go for HDB loan. However, if u can afford the higher upfront from bank loans, then consider below….
  HDB interest rates are pegged to CPF rates. Whatever the CPF rates to depositors, HDB rates will be 0.1% higher. I do not see bank loans interest rates surpassing HDB’s. It just cannot happen this way. Assuming bank loan rates goes up to 3%. That means their deposit rates to customers must also rise in tandem to attract more funds. CPF will tend to offer higher int rates to incentivise not withdrawing n also to deposit more into CPF funds. When such int rates rise, HDB loans int will rise in tandem at 0.1% higher. I believe this is a deliberate policy by CPF & HDB, though not cast in stone. In short, CPF deposit n HDB loan rates will always be higher than banks. As for early partial redemption with bank loans, there should be no charge or fee, unless it’s refinancing with another bank. Even refinancing with same bank attracts a small fee as it’s recurring business. Some banks may even waive it. Even if there’s small fees, it’s worth the savings from difference in bank loan from HDB’s. For more pro advice, google n contact those refinancing officers who can give u more clarity n work through your finances n affordability with u.

We took bank loan simply because of lower interest. Everything else simply sounds categorical and unquantifiable (eg: HDB is more lenient if you miss payments) and doesn’t really matter as long as you can hit the financing requirements – 5% cash, 25% downpayments

Earning About 1000 USD Monthly and Barely Scraping By – Advice Will Be Followed

To start, I’m the sole income earner supporting my family, freelancing at about $1000 monthly. it doesn’t work. My work doesn’t pay a lot but takes forever to get done.

Family is currently unhealthy so I try to limit our purchasing to healthy foods only (which costs more). Medical bills up the wazoo.

In debt. I feel my only choice currently is to earn more, but I’m not sure what to do to get there. I’ve also heard about investing but I’m locked into a scarcity mindset.

I’ll take the best advice I can get and will update on progress or lack thereof if anyone is interested.

Netizens’ comments

• Expenses? Family size? Why are you the only income earners? Also let me just come right out – $1000/mo isn’t enough to support one person nevertheless multiple
  • Expences currently average $967/mo 1000/mo is actually great for a single person. Fam size: 2 kids 2 adults Spouse lacks ability to work. I haven’t sought aid, but what kind should I be looking for?

No one can beat my platoon mate’s Keng level

Little backstory, currently in Guards battalion with this special dude, with 250+ days left to ORD.

This dude who I shall call “Keng kia”, ever since getting posted to Guards after POP, started to see MO regularly to get ex uniform status for some eczema, whr the MO always rejects the status due to it not being severe enough.

(By the way his eczema only affected his calves and it is considerably mild, and because he is tall, his black socks are the length of his boots too so the socks doesn’t touch the eczema at all. Besides, he regularly wears skinny jeans too)

After the MO rejects his req for ex uni, he reported sick outside of camp just to see specialist and somehow he gets 3 months of ex uni.

And because we’re in guards, there is a lot of outfields between rotations, so because he doesn’t wear uniform, he can skip outfield and just stays in bunk.

OH AND SO MANY DAYS INTO NS, KENG KIA HAS YET TO SERVE A SINGLE GUARD DUTY.

There was this one time where we did a 8KM route march with heavier loads, after finishing it, Keng kia casually asks one of us “eh why u nvr sweat? U skiving ah”, that was the last straw for all of us, we were pissed off and wanted to whack him outside camp.

It pissed me off even more because I actually see oekple with full body eczema, arms and legs and neck, wearing long 4 or smart 4. This Keng kia Abit only, keep wanting to ex uni and even mock us for doing route marches or othe combat training.

Doubt got anyone trashier can beat this Keng kia. Bet certain ASA from 3 guards will know exactly who I’m talking about.

Is it legal for the employer to check employee’s personal phone?

As title.

Background: I work in a small private sector and we each have a sales target to reach. Recently, bosses has been on my ass for things that is not in the contract. They mentioned things like, have you follow up with clients? Why dont i have client retention? (which is false as data showed otherwise). Why did i not do this and that? (All NOT stated in the contract and wasn’t informed beforehand) and many more.

The story: I have 2 bosses and both did something that i was dumbfounded about.

Boss #1, “talked” to me about things that he was unhappy about (all of it was not stated in my contract). Then, boss told me to text a client to come in early so that i dont have to claim Time Off. I just said okay. And boss looked at me and asked what am i doing? Which bamboozled me. And replied, talking to you? Which boss responded to text client NOW and show it to him. So boss literally made sure i texted client to come in early if they can. Told me after that, next time if i have any clients coming in after work hours, tell them to come earlier so that i dont use many time offs (?????) And that i need to show boss proof that i text those clients moving forward to show that i am working (?????)

Boss #2, “talked” to me about similar things (note again that things they mentioned is not in my contract). Then boss demanded that i showed him my messages with clients to see if i did follow up. I’m like, no biggie right? So all my clients have their name saved as:

-Company name – Client – Actual name of client –

Showed boss in my whatsapp with all the client’s name while i was still holding my phone. Boss took my phone away and press back, revealing all my personal messages as well. I took away immediately and told boss that all clients in my phone is save with company’s name so its easier. Did the same thing, boss pressed back and read through my personal non-work related messages as well. I feel so fucking violated. Just for boss to tell me that, i did follow up with clients but ITS NOT ENOUGH.

Edit: just to add, i DID NOT consent of him taking my phone because i was holding it while scrolling all the client’s messages. He took it off my hand and went further away from me. When i saw he pressed back and look through my personal messages, i took it back immediately. Just for him to snatch my phone yet again. The personal messages he read through included conversations with my family members with sensitive topics. I tried taking my phone again the 2nd time but he blocked me instead, preventing me to take it back.

With that being said, is it even legal for boss to check employee’s personal phone???

Just to add, they are only doing this to me. They dont check on others. Which baffles me because my sales every month hits more than my other colleagues. I just had this conversation with 3 of my colleagues (lunch) and said that what they did is too much. Even worse, they dont micromanage them like how they did to me.

A tourist to Singapore from Australia was seen asking online on why do Singaporean restaurants charge a fee when patrons ask for a glass of water.

He or she also lamented that restaurants in Australia do not charge for them unlike in Singapore and if they do not serve tap water, they will offer bottled water at a small fee.

Here is what he said

“Came from Australia, tap water is free and we don’t have service charge (we tip tho).

In Singapore’s restaurants, I realized restaurants charges for water – many only serve bottle water too. I read from PUB that the tap water is safe to drink, so why do restaurants in Singapore love charging customers for free water?

I would be surprised if 1-2 cups of water is not negligible to the operation cost and if it is negligible it should be included as a part of the service.”

Replies by netizens

• The real reason is because they can and enough people are willing to pay.
• It’s not the cost of the water. It’s the cost of cleaning the glasses, the cost of the time the staff has to bring you the glass of water, and perhaps refill it. F&B are very short staffed. I don’t mind paying a nominal fee for water. Like 1$ per pax.
• It is to sway you towards getting an overpriced beverage instead of overpriced water. The profit margin on drinks is very high.
• It’s the opportunity cost of them not being able to sell you other drinks
• You’re thinking it’s wrong because you’re thinking from a customer point of view… Try thinking from the restaurant owner point of view and you will get your answer easily.

Image source: Unsplash

I have an extremely attractive male colleague – well groomed, cheeky & touchy when out drinking. He publicly posts about his current partner on his social accounts but he always ends a party night out with different girls, often going back to his place.

While I don’t condone cheating, he seems to get a kick out of it – both him and the girls. The thing is, why aren’t the girls compelled to tell his current partner when it’s so easy to track her and drop a message?

Some of the girls are even attached but what is the science behind this? What are the chances of a girl reporting when she’s:

1) single
2) in a relationship.

It seems affairs are everywhere but often kept under the blankets.

Replies and Comments by Netizens

• My ex cheated on me multiple times. The people he cheated/flirted with were people who somehow knew me. As much as I was hurt by the betrayal, I am also hurt by the lack of action to protect me from fellow women. It has affected me to this day. I have trust issues with friendships too. A part of me wished they had told me or protected me. But they were enabling his behaviour. But also in retrospect, I wondered if I would believe them if I was told back then.
• If the girls already are in a relationship and know that he’s also in a relationship are not inclined to tell his partner about it if they are also cheating. Not sure if anyone really dares to snitch on this kind of things especially if someone in the relationship has anger issues. If you want just tell her. If you do you really have balls and I salute you.
• Morally i agree it’s the right thing to do to tell someone when theyre partner is cheating but it’s unfortunately pretty complicated especially if you dont know the person being cheated on. They could choose not to believe you or even accuse you of trying to destroy the relationship. But i guess youve done your part by telling them and how they choose to react is on them, but it sucks that good intentions can backfire sometimes.

Image source: Unsplash

Hi everyone, I would appreciate your thoughts on this small matter.

I was with my boyfriend at macs. When he came back to the table with the food, I troubled him to get a curry sauce, and he replied saying the staffs are busy. But still, he went over to the counter.

After close to 10 mins, he wasn’t back so I walked over and saw him waiting with other customers infront of the counter. He then went to the self-order machine, and wanted to order nuggets. I saw and I went forward and asked him why, and he said he wanted to buy to get the curry sauce.

Upon hearing that, I could feel myself boiling so I told him to go back first. There was a staff preparing orders at the counter so I went forward to ask and the staff passed me the curry sauce.

After I went back, we ate and admitted that we were unhappy about this. He felt that the staffs were busy and I still asked him to get the sauce. For me, I felt unhappy because I couldn’t understand why he wanted to buy extra nuggets to join the queue to get the curry sauce. Why couldn’t he just ask the staff at the counter? I know he didn’t want to trouble the staffs as they were busy, but I just felt angry at that moment.

I told him I’ll post here to get some thoughts, so feel free to comment and let me know what do you think of this small matter over a curry sauce, thanks.

Replies and Comments from netizens

• Sounds like he has some kind of social anxiety about making requests from strangers. How is he in other dining situations? Like requesting for more more tartar sauce or something at a restaurant like Swensens. Is it just a McDonald’s thing? Is it every time, or just this once?
• Or is it that the bf was raised by classy parents, and thought that barging up to the counter to get more sauce for free was inappropriate?
• Doesn’t like to trouble others is one thing, he might also consider himself “jumping queue” and doesn’t want confronting stares and anger from other customers.

Image source: Google Maps, MacDonald’s Facebook