By Veena Bharwani

IN THESE cash-strapped times, every little bit helps.

GE Money, for example, is waiving the last instalment for new customers who settle their monthly instalments on time.

To be eligible, one must earn more than $20,000 a year, like 30-year-old Mr Tan, who has had a contract-based engineering job for nine years.

Mr Tan, who has an Institute of Technical Education certificate and earns about $30,000 a year, has applied to borrow $12,000.

He wants to use it to take up a three-year degree course in entrepreneurship and management.

'It is not safe to continue to rely on a contract-based position. I want to secure my future by getting a degree and in turn a better job,' he said.

Although he earns about $2,500 a month, Mr Tan, who is single, helps his parents to pay the loan for their four-room flat.

In 2004, Mr Tan borrowed $8,000 from GE Money to help pay for his parents' flat. For his new loan, Mr Tan will repay $320 a month, at an interest rate of 14.38 per cent for 48 months.

If he pays up on time every month, the last month's repayment will be waived.

The waiver does not apply to those with existing loans at GE Money.

DBS Bank is also offering help to cash-strapped customers.

Home owners with mortgages with DBS can ease their financial burden by opting to pay only the interest on their loans for periods of up to 18 months.

Someone with a 25-year home loan of $500,000 pegged at 3.5 per cent interest must repay $2,504 a month - covering both interest and principal.

By opting to pay the interest only, the monthly repayment drops to $1,439, giving the customer an extra $1,065 to spend a month. There are no specific conditions to qualify for this scheme and DBS assesses each customer on a case-by-case basis.

A DBS spokesman said: 'If customers are in financial difficulty, they should approach the bank to work out a viable repayment schedule.'

To help polytechnic and university graduates cope with the downturn, the repayment of tuition fee and study loans have also been suspended by the bank for a year, until 31 Mar 2010.

Graduates from previous years will also enjoy the 12-month freeze.

No interest will be charged on the unpaid amount during this period.

This article was first published in The New Paper.