Is availing a policy loan from GSIS a good idea?

Is availing a policy loan from GSIS a good idea for teachers? Well, I have heard and seen many teachers complain about their deductions because op this. 

So what is a GSIS policy loan? The Policy loan is a loan program which members may avail of from their GSIS’s life insurance policy. The loan bears an 8% interest rate. It can be paid in two ways: 

1. through monthly amortization or 

2. deduction from a member’s existing life insurance policy contract. 

Getting a policy loan from GSIS is both a good or bad idea for members. Why?

Bad Idea

(I will not try to explain further about policy loan in here, pls proceed to you nearest GSIS branch for details)

There are many teachers who are very eager to get a loan from GSIS without full understanding of the said loan. Most of these teachers need immediate funds so they tend to dive in to availment of the said loan. 

In everything we do, it is important that we know the pros and cons of our actions. It is important to ask the staff what is the loan all about. Teachers need to be knowledgeable enough with all the loans to avoid problems in the future.

As I have mentioned above, there are many teachers who complained about this. Sure it is confusing if they got to avail of the said loan and find out later on how the deductions went. 

Good Idea? It depends…

There are some teachers who prefer to avail loans from GSIS because to them, the interest is low. The truth is that all lending agencies/institutions have different strategies. They get to advertise that they have the lowest interest rate among all when the truth is, IT’S THE SAME. A loan is a debt and it collects interest no matter what.

So, different loans will also have different interest rates depending on the loan. That is why when teachers avail policy loan without prior knowledge, they end up sad. They become disappointed to pinpoint why their deductions are like that.

So in conclusion…

Do not try to avail policy loan from GSIS without proper knowledge about it. You must first ask the proper personnel who can explain to you the real score of this policy loan. – Alec | Helpline PH