Signing contracts in a rush can lead to immense harm

That is, if events taking place at the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) are anything to go by. Yesterday, this paper quoted a senior official from the lender complaining over damning comments by borrowers protesting ‘unfair treatment’ by the board.

According to the official, HESLB offices have in the recent past been a beehive of activity as angry beneficiaries demanded to know precisely why they were still on the defaulters’ list or why their salaries were still being deducted when official documents in their hands showed that they had cleared the full amount years back.

But HESLB maintains that those feeling aggrieved are in the wrong because they thought they had paid up their loans merely by looking at the principal without considering other charges such as loan fees and fines.

The problem, according to the board, is that some loan applicants do not fully read the terms and conditions – and the confidence with which they face and accuse staff is proof that some did not even peruse the sections in question.

Hence, or so argues the board, those with reservations had no clue that the loans form they signed stipulated that charges such as loan administration fee, value retention fee and a penalty after the grace period would apply!

It says what often happens is that loan applicants simply fill in the blank spaces and sign without fully understanding what is written on the form – itself a binding contract.

But why is it a big deal? When we talk about applicants for higher education loans we mean well educated people, men and women who passed form six exams or are diploma holders.

However, higher education students are not the only ‘educated class’ members to have demonstrated little seriousness when it comes to the signing of contracts. Most contracts that brought huge financial losses to this nation were entered into on our behalf by some of our best educated minds. Knowingly or unknowingly, they missed the devil in the details.

Since jobs have become scarce and people are encouraged to borrow money and invest, ordinary citizens’ sentiments are not very encouraging. The common belief is that loan sharks are making a killing through horrendously high interest rates off desperate people who simply ask ‘where do I sign?’

The sad reality is that, usually, once a contract is in force it cannot be undone unless all the relevant parties agree to that effect. There are very few exceptions that can lead to alteration of a contract – maybe confirmed fraud or deception. Otherwise contracts cannot easily be broken.

That is why, as a people, we need to train ourselves and make it a culture to read and understand contracts thoroughly before putting our signatures on the dotted lines.