You signed the agreement, the money has landed, and now you’re unsure. Since 15 September 2026, you have three business days to cancel an unsecured loan from a licensed moneylender — but having the option is not the same as knowing whether to use it.
Cancelling isn’t automatically the responsible choice, and keeping the loan isn’t automatically the mistake. This page is about working out which one fits your situation.
We are a licensed moneylender, so we have an obvious commercial interest in you keeping the loan. We have written this as straight as we can, and we say plainly below where cancelling is the better call. Read it with that in mind, and check it against what you know about your own finances.
Know your deadline before anything else
Three business days, not three calendar days. Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays do not count.
Get the exact date confirmed in writing by your lender, and work to the day before it rather than the day itself. A decision made under time pressure on the final afternoon is rarely your best one.
Good reasons to cancel
The need disappeared.
The bill got settled another way, the repair cost less than quoted, a payment you were owed came through. If the reason you borrowed no longer exists, cancel. Holding a loan you no longer need costs you interest for nothing.
You found a cheaper option.
A bank facility, a credit union, help from family on terms you are comfortable with. Compare the total cost, not just the monthly figure, and if the alternative genuinely wins, cancel.
You borrowed under pressure.
If you were rushed, or agreed to a larger sum than you went in for, the cooling-off period exists precisely for this. Use it.
The repayments do not fit your budget.
Not “will be tight” — actually do not fit. If you cannot see how the monthly payment gets made without something else going unpaid, that is a signal to stop now rather than three months in.
Good reasons to keep it
The need is real and still there.
Medical costs, school fees, a deposit you would otherwise lose. If the loan is doing the job you took it out for, cancelling puts you back at square one minus the retained fee.
You have run the numbers, and they work.
If the repayment fits your monthly budget with room to spare, second thoughts are not the same as a problem.
Cancelling would cost you more than keeping it.
If cancelling means missing a payment deadline elsewhere and incurring a penalty, or having to borrow again next week, you may be paying twice for the same money.
Three questions that usually settle it
If you are going back and forth, these tend to produce an answer:
1. If the money were still in the lender’s hands, would I apply today?
Not “do I regret the stress of applying” — would you take this loan, at this amount, on these terms, knowing what you now know? If no, cancel.
2. What is my plan for the next repayment date, specifically?
Name the income it comes from and the date it arrives. If you can do that, keeping the loan is defensible. If the answer is vague, that vagueness will not improve with time.
3. What changes if I cancel?
Be concrete. If the answer is “I still need the money and will borrow it somewhere else next week,” cancelling has not solved anything. If the answer is “I no longer need it” or “I have a better option lined up,” it has.
The option most people miss
Cancelling and keeping are not the only choices.
If the problem is the amount or the schedule rather than the loan itself, say so before you cancel. A repayment arrangement that fits your actual cash flow may solve the thing that is bothering you, without you losing the retained portion of the approval fee and starting over.
The Registry of Moneylenders encouraged licensed lenders to do exactly this in its April 2026 Professional Service Handbook update — restructuring repayments to suit a borrower’s situation, and referring people to a Social Service Agency where the difficulty runs wider than one loan. These are encouraged practices rather than legal duties, so they vary by lender. Ask.
If you are cancelling for the wrong reason
Two situations worth naming, because both end badly.
Cancelling in panic, without checking the figures.
Cancelling is not free. You repay what was disbursed plus the capped portion of the approval fee. Find out what that number is before you decide, not after.
Cancelling a licensed loan and borrowing elsewhere.
If you cancel and then take money from someone who is not on MinLaw’s
list of licensed moneylenders,
you have traded a regulated loan with capped interest, capped fees and a complaints route for something with none of those protections. That is a worse position than the one you were trying to escape, and it is the single outcome we would most want you to avoid.
Do not leave it to day three
Whatever you decide, decide early.
Acting on day one costs you nothing extra and leaves room if something goes wrong — a payment that does not clear, an office that closes earlier than you expected, a document you did not bring. Deciding on the final afternoon leaves you no margin at all.
Talking it through with us
If you are weighing this up, call us. We would rather have the conversation than have you guess.
Our approval fee is 10% of the principal, which is the maximum permitted, so the retained portion on cancellation is the full cap — S$50 on loans of S$5,000 or less, or 3.5% of the principal on larger loans. No interest is charged, and you will never repay more than you borrowed.
If you decide to cancel, come to our Clementi office with the same documents you provided when you applied, along with your loan agreement. Settlement is completed within 24 hours of the cancellation being confirmed. That 24 hours is not your deadline to decide — your deadline is the end of the three business days.
Winz Credit Pte Ltd Licence No. 121/2025 Block 441A Clementi Avenue 3, #01-04 Singapore 121441 | Opening hours
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