Just before I finished my housemanship last March, I managed to settle my study loan with MARA. :)
Alhamdulillah!
I have been living as 'anak MARA' since my secondary school as I entered MRSM till I completed my Form 5. Then, I applied for MARA convertible loan to further my studies for A-Level and Undergraduate in Czech.
Thank you MARA for giving me opportunity to study abroad while exploring the diversity of mankind.
Thank you MARA for the first opportunity of European-bound flight. It was from KLIA-Frankfurt to be exact.
Thank you MARA for monthly allowance to help me survive.
Thank you MARA :)
When I was a student in Czech with the others, we have two bank accounts - one in Euro currency (as our allowance was given in Euro) and another one in Czech Koruna (for debit card etc). Every time we received the allowance, we need to go to the counter to withdraw the money in Euro and there would be some fee applied for every transaction.
What I did was, after I calculated every single details of my monthly expenses and decided to withdraw a lump sum of 3 months expenses. What I mean is, I do not have to do frequent withdrawal (hence I saved some money from paying the fee).
It was scary to hold a large amount of bank notes. So, after paying the apartment rent to my landlord in cash (she preferred that way, her unit was downstairs anyway haha), I immediately put the money into my Czech Koruna account. Then, all transactions to buy anything like groceries or cafe hoping (to study yea) or train rides were done by waving the debit card.
I honestly learned and appreciated the existence of debit card when I was in Czech. :)
MARA actually gave two choices on the method to pay - it could be either lump sum (with some discount) or pay monthly. I chose the second option just because the money I saved from Czech were needed for other stuffs (especially to settle down back in Malaysia after returning for good). It involved a lot of travelling to and fro- Kuala Lumpur for lotssss of stuffs plus I went for some medical courses while preparing for housemanship.
Anyway, payment is settled!
Alhamdulillah.
Thank you Allah for all of these experiences :)