HSBC Personal Loan- Not your usual product review.

You may have wondered how the HSBC loan process works, how banks charge, or how long they take to reply. You were trying to find it online when you saw this link. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way as detailed here. While MAS released the Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities, they still have gaps. Unlike the UK, where 1% or 1-hour loans must apply to most borrowers, Singapore lacks equivalent enforcement. Many intermediaries unaffiliated with banks continue to provide information while not being covered by these enforcements. And this is why you need to read this article.

HSBC Personal Loan - As we have seen so many “comparison” websites or bloggers reviewing it, we thought we would chip in, but with a twist.

Not all "comparison websites" are what they claim to be—many are nothing more than paid advertising platforms, serving the advertisers that pay them.

While general information, such as miles or points per dollar spent, is easy to research, loan amounts and interest rates are highly personal. They change from one borrower to another based on each individual’s credit score & profile. That rate they “reviewed” or “compared” for you is actually a teaser rate. Here’s how it works in detail. They are rates that you may or may not get, and in many countries, regulators are either suing them for clickbaiting and misleading consumers or publishing warnings on them.

But if you are pressed for time, you don’t have to read the article above - here is an image that says it all. One "comparison" website basically admitted to it!

Credit: Head of Lendingpot. Strangely enough, Lendingpot appears to be exposing its own practices. For more of their contradiction or to join the conversation, click here. What’s more, when we pointed out the conflict of interest of brokers owned by lenders, they echoed it months later—despite being owned by IFS Capital & PhilipCapital!

And there's more. They have always been there. You just need to know where to look. 

Credit: Public review found on Seedly and Google

Every now and then, you’ll see them write comparisons like “this loan vs. that loan.” But think about it—if they claim to compare 10 loans, did they really take all 10 and pay interest on each one? Across markets from the U.S. to Australia, regulators are discovering that these platforms often highlight results based on payment, not on what’s truly best for the borrower or consumer. What you see isn’t always an unbiased comparison but a curated list bought by those who pay the most.

In the UK, at least 51% of borrowers must actually enjoy the quoted rate. Singapore, however, has no such law. And even if the rates are genuine, what about the loan amount or tenure? But the real issue is this—if you followed a loan “comparison” platform’s recommendation and didn’t compare with other banks, you could have lost thousands. Another bank could easily have provided a cheaper rate. More is explained in the article above.

And thus we built FindTheLoan.com, Singapore’s 1st loan marketplace. Instead of teaser rates or applying with multiple lenders one by one, in just minutes, you can reach multiple lenders at once with your actual documents, and they will make a full credit assessment as if you had walked in to them individually, and they will revert with their actual offer.

If you think that is wrong, we invite you to share your thoughts on this LinkedIn post or on our Reddit, TikTok, or Facebook post, if you prefer. Because the pattern keeps repeating—platforms like Lendela, SingSaver, Roshi, and Lendingpot show how unchecked marketing practices keep misleading borrowers, as our findings on them reveal. And with 60 million reported users for MoneySmart alone, such platforms remain supercharged by investor funding and lender partnerships, even as concerns over misleading claims mount overseas.

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything",  Albert Einstein

However, we have tagged a number of MPs on LinkedIn who, during parliament, have asked about matters such as greater consumer protections. Weighing in there, and as more people share their thoughts there, could finally catch their attention to do something about the industry and better protect borrowers. Every comment, repost, or show of support matters — it increases the chances that policymakers take notice and act. We cannot stop lenders from fueling their growth and widening their platform and more people seeing these misleading ads. But we can expose misleading advertising and keep borrowers, SMEs, and consumers safer. Your voice counts.

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Essential reading: Loan Brokers: 10 Insider Tips Every SME or borrower Should Know.

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