BY JEET SINGH

NEEDLESS to say that the first thing is your and your family’s health. We are lucky to be living in the age of digital communication. There have been times in the past when millions of human lives and entire cities were wiped out because of a virus. There were no ways of warning even the next village.

We will conquer this virus, too. But the coronavirus (COVID-19) will have side-effects. You have to plan for those side-effects now. A stitch in times saves nine.

Here I am going to talk only about one of the side-effects of this virus. It’s effect on your credit. I am thinking for all those who may not realize how this virus can negatively affect one’s credit.

This coronavirus will have disastrous after-effects for many. It can lead to a recession. Stocks have already tumbled big time. Some small businesses may not be able to survive. But most importantly, people who live from pay-cheque to pay-cheque may get affected negatively and may not be able to recover for quite some time.

Please don’t ignore your payment obligation. Don’t think that the lenders, especially credit card companies, will understand. They will not. Rich people do not and need not understand your pain.

If you think you are going to miss a payment, call your credit card company right away and follow it up with an email and tell them to send you an email confirming the agreement you reached with them.

If your credit score goes down or your credit gets ruined, you will be paying high-interest rates for the next seven years and may not be able to get a bank loan at all. No one will be interested in listening to stories. So, plan now.

If you are a homeowner, think about debt-consolidation. Not only pay off your 22% high-interest rate credit cards, lower your interest rate, make just one payment instead of ten payments but also free up your credit cards for emergencies.

If you are a homeowner, feel free to call me or your mortgage broker for advice and help. Just because of the coronavirus, I can help you with a small second or a third mortgage and try to keep your cost way down.

Protect your credit. Good credit is power.

Jeet Singh is a writer and CEO of Benevolent Bancorp. He can be reached at 778-320-9494 or jsingh956@yahoo.com.