Must Mark "Salary" for Loan Rate Discounts

[Anchor]

It is time for our Friendly Economy segment with reporter Han Jiyeon. Han, is there something people easily miss when taking out a loan?

[Reporter]

The Financial Supervisory Service has issued a warning that borrowers might miss out on loan interest rate discounts if they fail to meet salary transfer conditions.

An interest rate discount means that a bank cuts a certain percentage off the base loan rate if the borrower fulfills specific conditions, such as transferring their salary.

First, you need to register your company name and payday on your bank's mobile application.

However, many companies have a designated bank through which they send out salaries. If this bank is different from the one where you took out your loan, you have to manually transfer a portion of your salary yourself.

In such cases, you must write "salary" or "pay" in the remarks or description field of the transfer.

In reality, however, many people have missed out on these benefits due to such trivial oversights.

For instance, some borrowers received a 0.4 percentage point discount agreement when taking out a mobile credit loan, but failed to receive it because they did not register their company name and payday. Others took out a jeonse (lump-sum housing lease) loan and transferred 1 million won every month, but failed to get recognition because they did not mark the transfer as a "salary."

Since these detailed criteria vary slightly from bank to bank, borrowers need to check the specific guidelines of the bank they use.

Moreover, even if your salary deposit account remains the same, if you change jobs, you must notify the bank that issued your loan about the change to continue receiving the rate discount.

For reference, you also need to choose a loan repayment method that suits your personal situation.

Since the total interest varies depending on whether you pay back the principal in installments every month or pay it all at once at maturity, it is best to weigh your options before deciding.

[Anchor]

And the acceleration clause, or "loss of the benefit of time," is included in most loan agreements, so it is something we definitely need to know about, right?

[Reporter]

If you fall behind on payments for a certain period, you lose the benefit of the time period granted for repayment.

If this happens, you may be required to pay back the remaining loan balance all at once.

The term "loss of the benefit of time" sounds a bit unfamiliar, but simply put, it is when the bank says, "Let's cancel the installment repayment agreement."

For general household loans, this happens if you fail to pay interest for one month or miss installment payments twice in a row.

For mortgage loans, the terms are slightly more lenient: you lose the benefit of time if you fail to pay interest for two months or miss installment payments three times in a row.

When this happens, you must repay the entire remaining loan balance at once, and if the principal is 50 million won or more, overdue interest is slapped onto the entire remaining balance.

However, banks are required to notify borrowers of this fact up to 7 business days before the date of the loss of the benefit of time.

Also, for those who took out loans with variable interest rates, the base rate and spread rate are recalculated when extending the maturity, so rates can either go up or down.

If your credit standing has worsened by that time, the bank may refuse to extend your loan or demand partial repayment, so you should maintain good credit management on a regular basis.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.