UOB SME Loan - What You Need to Know Before Using It

You probably wanted to understand how UOB's loan works, how banks charge, or how quickly they can respond. And you were searching online when you found this article. Unfortunately, as explained here, it doesn’t work that way — many of these details remain unknown until you actually apply. While MAS issued the Guidelines on Standards of Conduct for Digital Advertising Activities in September, we humbly find them still lacking in scope. In the UK, any advertised 1% or 1-hour loan must apply to at least 51% of borrowers — not so here. What’s worse are intermediaries unaffiliated with banks yet feeding them leads. And this is why you need to read this article.

If you were expecting a write up of UOB and their loans, or things like UOB originally started as United Chinese Bank - we gonna do you one better. How those reviews actually work and why you should stop relying on them.

Across markets from the U.S. to Australia, regulators are finding that these platforms often prioritize results based on payment, not on what’s truly best for the customer or consumer. Not all review sites are what they claim to be—many are nothing more than sponsored listing sites, serving the advertisers that pay them. What you see isn’t always an unbiased comparison but a filtered list bought by those who pay the most. Some Singaporeans have already found out the hard way.

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. Click the article to learn what these terms mean and how websites like SingSaver or MoneySmart operate. Regulators in multiple jurisdictions have started legal actions or released warnings against clickbaiting websites. We’ve included examples—ranging from the US FTC to Australia’s MoneySmart, their equivalent of Singapore’s MoneySense. And yes, it’s ironically called MoneySmart too.

But if you are pressed for time, you don’t have to read the article above - here is an image that says it all.

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!

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?

UK regulation enforces that 51% of customers get the advertised rate. Singapore hasn’t set such a standard. And rates alone don’t tell the story too—loan size and tenure matter too. A 1% rate sounds attractive, but not if it’s only on $500 when you need $50,000 right? The bigger problem is this: if you relied on a so-called loan “comparison” site and simply took the recommended option without checking elsewhere, you might have ended up paying thousands more. Another bank could have offered you a far lower rate. We’ve explained in greater detail how this really works 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, 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.

These are not small players. But multinational companies and even subsidiaries of listcos. And these aren’t isolated cases — they highlight a systemic issue within the loan industry, also evident among intermediaries like MoneySmart, Lendingpot, Lendela, Roshi, and SingSaver.

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

If you think that is not right, we invite you to share your thoughts on this LinkedIn post or on our Reddit, TikTok, or Facebook post, if you prefer. 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.

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Check out our related article on loan brokers and what to watch out for when using them—an area where US and UK regulators are far ahead of Singapore.

 

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