Uncle Jan is doing good business
Uncle Jan is doing well, to put it in a popular way. More formally, pawnshops do good business. Easy Money, Thailand's largest pawnshop, has posted a 20 percent increase in customer numbers in recent months.
“Most people need money to pay loans due to higher living costs and household debts,” says director Sittiwit Tanghanakiat.
One of the main causes of the debt problems is the government's first-car program. Buyers of a first car will receive a refund of the tax paid. The program ended at the end of last year. In addition, mortgages, credit card bills and personal loans weigh heavily on the household budget. The floods and the weak economy are adding to this.
Easy Money has a mix of customers: both manual and non-manual workers. In both segments, the number of customers has increased by 20 percent since July. Owners of small and medium-sized companies also know how to find their way to Ome Jan. They mortgage expensive properties because they need working capital to survive. The car buyers are expected to claim their pawned property when they receive the tax refund.
The interest at Easy Money is 2 percent per month for a principal amount of 2000 baht or less and 1,25 percent for a higher amount over a period of 5 months or 4 percent if the principal is not repaid on time.
Ninety percent of the pledged property consists of gold and jewellery. The collapse of the gold price from April to June hit the company hard, although it was insured. The company expects to reach half of its profit target this year.
Easy Money, which was founded in 2005, has 27 branches. Next year 2 will be added in Udon Thani. The company has no branches in the South. The area is not a priority because people there have sufficient liquid assets compared to other regions, says Sittiwit.
(Source: bangkok mail, October 24, 2013)
Also in Pattaya, this club recently opened an immense building on 3rd Road halfway between Pattaya Klang and Pattaya South.
Read about Ome Jan also my earlier story
https://www.thailandblog.nl/dagelijks-leven-in-thailand/ome-jan-thailand/
In the smaller places where 'uncle Jan' is not there, the local Chinese gold shop often acts as, let's say, 'aunt Annie'.
I can promise you that more customers go there to pick up or drop off their gold than to buy some.
Dear Hansk, You can also borrow gold from a gold shop in Bangkok. Saw a previous girlfriend do it in a gold shop in a shopping mall. I had to stay away or she would get less.
Hi Dick,
55555 Have you not been tricked??. get less with that.
I think there is a system in Thailand with some sort of exchange rate for buying gold that is set daily per bath and is also maintained by the gold stores.
Look it up in the Bangkok Post, I think it will be in it almost every day.
en
http://www.goldpricethai.com good reference point if you are "allowed" to buy a necklace for your thai girlfriend for the first time. Jewelery storage is minimal so there is little to haggle.
@hansk My friend didn't sell her gold jewelry, but she borrowed it, just like in a pawnshop. The jewelry is appraised, looking for any damage. According to her, she got more for it in the gold shop in question than with Easy Money.
Dear Dick, if you borrow it, it doesn't really matter whether you get more or less. When you pick it up again, you pay the loaned price that you received at the time, plus the interest, whether or not a piece of jewelry is damaged
doesn't matter that much, after all, it won't be sold anyway, as your girlfriend says.
The gold shops do indeed give more for gold than "Uncle Jan" due to the small price difference between buying and selling, and then damage does something to the price, if you were to borrow it, the interest would make it more expensive than selling it to the gold shop.
But let's just say that “Uncle Jan” and “Aunt Annie” are doing good business. I later saw that Aunt Annie where I bought gold last time in a thick, fairly new Mercedes.