Approval is not the same as affordability
A bank may approve a loan that your monthly cash flow still hates. Salary should be treated as a budgeting guardrail, not an invitation to borrow the maximum amount on offer.
Think in budget bands
A practical starting point is to ask what percentage of take-home income you are comfortable allocating to the new installment once rent, food, transport and existing debt are already covered. Many borrowers feel very different at 15%, 20% and 30% of monthly income.
Three questions to ask yourself
- If income drops for two or three months, does this installment still feel survivable?
- Would a smaller principal solve the problem almost as well?
- Is the longer tenure making the monthly number look safe while quietly raising the total cost?
Why SEABorrow includes affordability views
Borrowers should be able to see not only which lender is cheapest, but also whether the entire scenario is too aggressive for the income they entered. That second question is often the one that matters most in real life.