How to avoid landlord drama during the festive season

Some landlords can be a nightmare and you should be wary of them now that the festive season is around the corner because quite a number of them won’t think twice before adding a huge padlock on your door.

If you ask me, there’s nothing worse than being locked out of your house in December. It just ruins your mood and it is likely that you won’t even enjoy Christmas or New Year’s.

December is only two days away and that means that bills are about to start piling up. From rent, electricity, garbage, internet, insurance, you name it.

To add to that, you still have to set aside some money to make merry because it is the festive season after all. Even if you had planned on how you would spend your money, you might still find yourself in a tight financial spot.

This is where Co-op Bank comes in, to give you that financial boost that you desperately need or else you’d have to fake an out-of-town vacation or default on your rent.

You can get an instant loan at friendly interest rates on the MCo-op Cash app and relieve yourself from the pressure that comes with the festive season, including having run-ins with your landlord for not paying your rent.

To access the loan, you need to be a Co-op Bank customer and install the MCo-op Cash application from Google Play Store or the iOS App Store.

After signing up, you can borrow anything between KSh. 1000 and a maximum of KSh. 200,000. For businesses, the limit is KSh. 500,000.

There you go. That’s how you avoid landlord drama and enjoy yourself during the festive season. Happy holidays!

An Interestingly Simple but Puzzling Lesson on the Mechanics of Money

In my high school days, I met a very calm, patient lady. She was my languages teacher. She rocked black, horn-rimmed glasses, and had an eternal flowered scarf on her neck, and various brooches. I think she was pretty wise – she could look intently at a student – such piercing eyes, and give you a prediction of your career future.

Mrs. Apollo Agnes. She later left teaching and joined Co-Op Bank, for a managerial role.

If by chance she gets to read this, let her know those predictions were oddly accurate. Mostly, she did give positive reviews, but if you got on her nerves, well, her dark side showed. One of my then best friends had her wondering out loud if he would survive a possible gunning down past his 30’s.

 

Well, he survived, somehow, but he’s serving a stint at Kamiti Prison for handling stolen goods.

In her eyes, I was already a CEO, running a huge company, or at least some NGO, I think. Though her endorsement wasn’t exactly maternal, as I was a perennial bust in almost every crime – Noise Makers List, Monto List, Missed Morning Preps List, Sold School Piglets List, etc.

Every morning at assembly, she would be like, “….Munyeki and Company, please dress forward….” She made me CEO in Form Two North. Good enough. If only she had said I would be a billionaire……..

Anyways, I owe my elder brother, Joe, a lot in teaching me ways of the world. Especially economics, and how the money in the world moves. He had a degree in economics, and would really be irritating when he delved into the folds and crannies of his passion.

However, one New Year’s Eve, he showed me firsthand the mechanics of money, as he called it. It was his first year of employment, and that holiday was his first. In the village, partying starts just after Jamhuri Day, in December. It’s a fortnight of sin and debauchery. It’s the season to be merry, and do idiotic stuff. Joe wanted to treat his village crew – and he did.

Perhaps, too much. He ran out of cash just before New Year’s Eve.

January brings with it a load of blues, and responsibilities. Besides school fees for a few cousins he had drunkenly pledged to support, he needed to travel back to Mombasa. He didn’t seem fazed at all by his predicament, though I knew he was broke.

 

He had always banked with Co-Op Bank, and he had the mCo-Op Cash App. Joe coolly whips out his phone over breakfast on New Year’s Day, and takes a salary loan. That defined cool. Takes just a few minutes. But the best was yet to happen: his crash course on the mechanics of money.

This was his last day in the village. He takes me to town, which is a few miles off. He wants to spend his last day with me – his way of clearing his guilt – I had hardly seen him over the holiday. At the bus stage, he makes a withdrawal at an M-Pesa outlet, straight from his mCo-op Cash App. Convenient.

After a few drinks, Joe gets into his philosophical mood and starts to lecture me. He creates a pretty confusing make-believe tale, on the movement of the money.

Let’s start with the bank lending him money via mCo-op Cash App. 

We make for Cool Breeze Lodge. He inquires of any vacant rooms, and the lady at the counter nods. Joe slaps 2k on the counter, and without waiting for anyone, sprints up the stairs to check the rooms on the upper floor. He’s a regular, I see.

The lady at the counter takes the 2k, and goes out the main door towards the butchery next door. She pays the butcher at Ng’ang’a And Son’s Butchery 2k for meat supplied earlier in the day. She goes back. Am at the counter, still. She smiles at me, but I can see she doesn’t have the money.

Meanwhile, Ng’ang’a – the butcher – goes out of his premises and crosses the road. He finds a farmer who supplies him with fresh meat, he had a remaining bill unpaid, and so he pays him 2k. He then strolls back to his butchery.

The farmer abandons the Ojuok game he was playing against an old friend. He had been losing, anyways. Usually, he wins, but he had been distracted by a debt he had at the local Waigwa Agro Vet Store, a few meters away. He walks to the store and hands over the same 2k. He then walks back.

I am still at the counter. What’s taking Joe so long upstairs?

In a few minutes, I see a man in a white dust coat walk up to the counter. It’s Waigwa, the vet. He has had a running bill at this lounge, when he had treated his friends to a few drinks and roast goat meat. He hands over 2k. After a few moments of chit chat with the counter lady, he walks out.

The lady looks at the notes, bemusedly, and places them on the counter.

Almost as if on cue, Joe appears from the stairs.

Hizo rooms zenu ni chafu” He tells the lady. “Wacha tutajipanga kwingine”.

He picks up the 2k notes from the counter. We walk out.

“That’s how money works, Munyeki.” Joe tells me, over the rim of his glass. “My 2k makes everyone happy, and I still got to leave with it”.

What have I learnt? That puzzle still haunts me to date.

Has your salary delayed? Relax! You can get a quick loan on your phone in these 4 easy steps

Sometimes, your employer may fail to credit your salary into your account in time. This forces you to look for other ways of paying the rent, utility bills, monthly repayments and what have you.

Gone are the days when people would panic because of delayed salaries. It’s no longer a cause for alarm thanks to Co-operative Bank’s MCo-op Cash Salary Loan.

You can go about your business and take care of what you need to without having to worry about when your salary will be paid into your account. It gives you some peace of mind.

What is the MCo-op Cash Salary Loan? What are the terms, and how can you access it? Well, let me explain. MCo-op Cash Salary Loan is a service by Co-operative Bank that allows customers to access loans of up to Ksh 200,000 – a maximum of 1.5 times of one’s net salary.

The loan is repayable in one month or you can spread it over three months and pay a small bit each month, depending on what works for you. This way, you can sort a few bills and live a stress-free life as you wait for your salary to check in.

You can access the MCo-op Cash Salary loan by following these 4 simple steps:

1. Dial *667# and enter your PIN (or open the MCo-op Cash app and enter your PIN)

2. Select “Loans” on the main menu an then select “Apply Loan” and then you pick the type of loan that you want for example “Business Loan”.

3. Enter the amount that you would like to borrow and confirm the transaction by pressing “Ok”

4. Accept the MCo-op Cash terms and conditions to complete your application.

You’ll receive a text informing you that your request has been received. After a short while, you’ll receive another message confirming that your loan application was successful and the amount that you requested for has been deposited into your account.

Yes, it’s that simple. What’s even more is that the loans have a one-off fee of 8% of the amount that you have borrowed.

You can also access the service by downloading the MCo-op Cash app from Google Play Store or the iOS App Store. Next time you find yourself in a tight financial spot, you know where to turn.