Hong Kong Desource Credit Limited lends from The Octagon in Tsuen Wan. We are not a bank; we take no deposits and issue no cards.
Every applicant asks what they can be approved for. Almost nobody works out what they can repay, in a month when things are not going well. So this page is a worksheet rather than an advertisement. Fill it in on paper before you speak to any lender, ourselves included.
An affordability figure calculated on a good month is not an affordability figure. Test it against the three things that most commonly go wrong, before you sign rather than afterwards.
Reduced hours, a lost commission, a contract not renewed. Could the repayment still be made from what remains, or does the household immediately need another loan?
A medical cost, a family obligation, a deposit for a new flat. If a single unexpected demand breaks the schedule, the schedule was never affordable — it was merely possible.
Job changes, moves, plans to leave Hong Kong. A commitment lasting four years should be tested against whether your circumstances will still resemble today's in year three.
We ask these at application, and a poor answer is a reason to lend less rather than to decline outright. A smaller facility that is comfortably serviced is worth more to both parties than a larger one that fails in month nine.
A lender assesses whether you are likely to repay. You need to know whether repaying will leave you able to live. Those are related questions and they are not the same question, and the gap between them is where most household debt trouble begins.
An assessment can be satisfied by a schedule that consumes everything you had spare. That facility performs perfectly on paper for as long as nothing changes. It is also the facility that turns a lost bonus into a missed payment, and a missed payment into an entry on your credit record that outlasts the loan itself.
So the useful discipline is to decide your own ceiling before you are told your approved limit — because being offered more than you came for is not good news, and it is remarkably difficult to argue with a number once somebody has said it out loud.
A fixed sum over a fixed term with a written schedule. The final payment date is known on the day you sign it.
Working capital for owner-run businesses in Tsuen Wan and across the territory, sized against a quiet month rather than a strong one.
Only where the total cost genuinely falls and the earlier accounts actually close. Otherwise it is an additional loan with a better name.
Applications where line 7 above cannot carry the repayment, where the money is going to another lender's instalment, and anything arriving through a person expecting a fee from the borrower.
Almost never. An approved limit is a statement about our risk appetite, not about your budget. Take the amount you came for, and treat any increase as a separate decision made on a different day with the worksheet in front of you.
Sometimes, and understand the trade. A longer term lowers each instalment and raises the total you pay, and it keeps you committed for longer. Ask for the total repayable on both the shorter and the longer version and compare those two figures rather than the monthly ones.
Generally yes, because it is easier to service, and that is the point rather than a trick. If the amount you want fails on affordability, asking for less is a real option and usually a better one than shopping the same amount around until somebody says yes.
Usually yes, and we will say so if you ask. Bank credit is generally cheaper. Money lenders earn their place where the sum is modest, the timing is short, or the application is sound but does not fit a bank's criteria.
The register of money lenders is maintained by the Companies Registry and searchable free through its e-Services portal. Look up the exact legal name yourself; a licence number printed in an advertisement proves nothing on its own.
Then the household is already short before any new borrowing, and another loan makes the arithmetic worse rather than better. Free nonprofit advice exists in Hong Kong, and it is a better first call than a lender. We would rather tell you that than write the file.
Filled in, on paper, before we discuss any amount. The conversation is shorter and considerably more useful that way.