SINGAPORE - Her daughter had just given birth and her elderly mother was stricken with bone tuberculosis.
But she was far away from her home and family in the Philippines, trying to make as much money as possible to send back and help her loved ones with the hospital bills.
The maid, who wanted to be known only as Mary, has been working in Singapore for more than 20 years and was desperate to get emergency funds.
When she approached licensed moneylenders, they turned her away, citing regulations introduced by the Ministry of Law in 2019.
These regulations slashed the quota and loan limits for foreigners, causing many licensed moneylenders to stop transacting with maids.
Mary confided in fellow maids, and they told her about a clothing retail shop at Lucky Plaza that would be able to help.
When she went to the shop in mid-2022, a woman who identified herself as Aunty B told Mary that if she needed money urgently, she could buy a piece of gold jewellery and pawn it for cash.
Mary said Aunty B took her to a corner of the shop where there was a small cabinet underneath a pile of clothes.
She took out a piece of gold jewellery from the cabinet and said she would pawn it for Mary and give her cash on the spot. Mary would then pay the loan back through a series of instalments over several months. Mary agreed.
“I needed the money, and there was no one else I could turn to. What other choice did I have?” she said, as she relived the experience recently.
Aunty B offered the jewellery to Mary for $3,300, to be paid over a period of six months in instalments of $600, with a last instalment of $300.
She then handed Mary $2,400 in cash, and said there would be an additional interest fee of $100 a month with a $5 fee for each day of late payment.
While Mary was able to keep up with the instalments for the first two months, she was soon struggling with the additional interest and lapsed in her repayment.
Aunty B started to turn nasty and accused Mary of running away.
She threatened to tell Mary’s employer and have her fired, and actually turned up outside the employer’s home, allegedly screaming and demanding payment.
She allegedly pushed and kicked the front door while hurling vulgarities at Mary.
Afraid, Mary turned to Pastor Billy Lee, the executive director of Blessed Grace Social Services, who called the police.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Pastor Lee said that since August 2022, there have been at least 30 maids who have approached him for help after taking similar loans and getting harassed.
Their stories mirrored Mary’s experience, although some had it worse as they were fired when their employers found out.
Said Mr Lee: “When the new regulations were introduced in 2019, I didn’t expect it would get so bad.
“I knew the maids would need to find avenues, hopefully legal ones, to get loans, because everyone comes across emergencies. But this new scheme is just retailers preying on the vulnerability of maids, and many of the maids have told me they have contemplated suicide because of the harassment.”
Blessed Grace Social Services, a non-profit organisation that helps the needy and vulnerable with addictions and debt, has made at least three police reports citing at least 12 retailers offering such loans to maids.
The police confirmed that the reports were made.
Jo, 50, who has been a maid in Singapore for 26 years, also borrowed from Aunty B, and said the same piece of jewellery she supposedly pawned was used to issue instalment plans to more than 10 maids.
She said she begged Aunty B for more time, but to no avail.
She lost her job after Aunty B turned up at the home of her employer and demanded repayment.
Jo said: “Many of us maids take loans, I think about eight out of 10 maids I know have taken similar loans recently.
“We usually have no problem repaying, but this new type of loan has very high interest, so we keep borrowing more and more from different shops to repay the loans. But we can’t pay back anything when we get fired after they come and harass us at our employers’ homes.”
Another three maids who spoke to The Sunday Times said other retailers ran similar schemes, and took their personal details via SingPass.
They showed messages from the retail shops, falsely touting their instalment schemes as buy now, pay later schemes.
Mr Lee is worried the situation could get out of hand if the authorities do not act soon.
“There needs to be some sort of gatekeeping and, if this is not stopped, more and more such shops are going to come up with such plans,” he said.
“And while some people might say it’s just a problem with the maids, we should remember that everyone goes through crisis and that it is wrong to exploit them.”
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