The Hidden Costs of Loans: Lessons from a Currency Depreciation Dilemma

in Hive Learners16 days ago

We all need money for one thing or another, and if we can't get that via our savings or income, most people delve into loans just so they can go ahead to acquiring their needs with the hope of paying back later in the future. While loans are great and could greatly help us achieve our immediate financial needs, they don't always end well, and today I'd love to share one experience related to this with you.

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But before I delve into that, I'd first love to say that I actually don't have much loan experience and that's because I'm always very careful and consciously avoiding running into a situation where I won't be able to pay, back but we time goes on I've come to realise that talking loans isn't totally bad because it's very normal for us to have needs as humans and not have the financial capability to bring that into reality, so diving into a loan to salvage the moment isn't a bad idea in as much as you have how pay back medium all planed out without getting into bigger problems in the name of taking loans and trying to pay back.With that being said, let's dive into my bad experience with loans.

As I said earlier, I'm not really into loans except when it's important, and through the years, I'm not sure I've dived into more than 5 loans, but there's one particular loan I took that turned out well, and I was really disappointed with the turnout. Although the money I borrowed wasn't really much, having to pay back almost double that due to the appreciation of our currency hit me really hard, and I ended up wishing I'd never taken the loan in the first place.

So sometime around last year, I took a loan from a friend in dollars, about 250 dollars to be precise, and as of when I took the loan and coveted it into our local currency, naira, it sums up to about 275 thousand naira. That came in handy to help me key into what I needed the money for at that very moment. Meanwhile, during the loan agreement, I vowed to pay it all back within the next 5 months, but things went south when it was about time for me to pay it back.

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Contrary to what you might be thinking, I didn't go broke and became unable to pay back the loan; in fact, I had the agreed amount meant to pay for the loan, but it happened that when it was about time for me to pay back, our local currency, the naira, depreciated so badly that I had to pay almost double what I lent, and I ended up biting my fingers in regret for taking the loan in the first place.I mean, who won't? How can you take a loan of 275 thousand naira, and by the time you are about to pay it back due to the depreciation of the current, you now have to pay around 450 thousand naira in exchange for what you borrowed?

To make this more understandable, as of when I took the loan, the value of naira to the dollar was 1100 naira to 1 dollar, but fast forward to when it was time for me to pay back, naira skyrocketed to 1800 to one dollar, and this got me sad and angry because paying bad would ruin my plan for my finances, where the extra money would have gone.As I didn't want to bother the kind individual who lent me the money without asking for interest, I decided I'd just have to pay back on the agreed date, and that's how I ended up going the extra mile to get the needed money to pay back and then pay within the agreed date.

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The next few months that followed were hell for me because I had to cut my expenses and the things I spent to cover that loss. It was a terrible loan experience. Funny enough, the loaner isn't aware of my ordeals, and I've had this thought that they would have given me more time had I explained my situation to them. Well, it's all gone now, and I'm glad it's over.


That's about my bad loan experience. I hope you enjoyed the read and learned something from it. Have a wonderful day ahead, and stay blessed.


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 16 days ago (edited) 

Ohh so sorry about the loss, nevertheless we can't say we won't take loan again because it's necessary in some stages.
Above all, we should make sure we have a good means of paying back and then use the loan for a good course, especially a profitable one.

 16 days ago  

Yea we won't say we'll stop taking loan.

In my case I've means of paying back but never expect naira to depreciate that bad causing me to pay back almost double.

 16 days ago  

So sorry about the lost you had
It happens sometimes
Never the less, we go again.
I'm sorry you had to pay almost double
I mean??
That's really huge

 16 days ago  

Thanks so much, it's what it's.

 16 days ago  

It really is what it is boss

 16 days ago  

Sorry, for what the loan has caused you. All we need to do is to be careful and ask significant questions when it comes to things like this.

 15 days ago  

Thanks so much, this is a unforeseen one and I doubt anyone would see it coming.

 15 days ago  

This is such an unforseen circumstance. I think if you have the slightest idea that naira would depreciate you won't get the money in dollar. But glad you paid back even though it affected other expenses.