The promotional interest rate for unsecured loan is low for a reason – to entice people to switch over from another bank.

4% of $10k is better than 18% of $0.

And of course, they know that some unsecured lenders will become “regular” customers.

Try Citi and UOB.

i don’t have any outstanding borrowings except for my mortgage whereby my loan amount is so small that the bank knows i can’t get refinancing and is charging me 4.5%p.a.

i tried to call up about 5 different banks and they refused to offer anything without admin fee… also, secured borrowings are at higher borrowing costs than unsecured borrowings.

why? are they targetting the people who are unlikely to be able to repay in full at the end of the promotion period?

any ethical bankers left in this world?

Yes, it is. The danger is getting the 8.8% loan to pay the credit card, going out to buy new things with the credit card, and then rolling over the new balance!