May has been a hot month for mobile loan service providers as users question the legality and propriety of lenders informing third parties about cash owed.
“They call your contacts asking them to tell you to pay your loan. Now my question is: What do they hope to gain from these people? They should understand you don’t take loans coz (sic) it’s fun.”
PHONE BOOK
That comment was posted online on May 15 by a miffed user of OKash, one of the more than 80 mobile lenders offering loans to Kenyans through smartphone applications.
She posted the tirade on Google Play Store, the platform where Android users download phone applications and rate the different apps available.
On the Play Store platform, OKash has been on the receiving end this month from a number of Kenyans due to its ways of contacting debtors whose loans are overdue.
It typically sends an SMS to contacts in a debtor’s phone book, asking the to inform him or her (the debtor) about an overdue loan.