Are you an addict of salary advance?

Every midmonth, Bedan Wameyo (not his real name) goes to his bank to apply for a salary advance. At the same time, towards the end of the month, he goes for a Sacco loan.

The two credit facilities have the salary as the security and are recovered with interest from the immediate paycheck.

In between, he has borrowed from friends and somewhere he has bought something on credit.

Come payday, what he gets goes to service his debts, leaving him in a vicious cycle of borrowing.

Wameyo represents a big chunk of income earners who despite how hard they try, they cannot survive a payday to another without an appointment with creditors.

He says: "My worth can only be defined by what I owe, not what I own." And as confidential disclosures from employees, even when the salary appears good enough to last a month, almost everyone is borrowing.

This is the world of instant unsecured loans provided by many employers as well as the banks with which the employee runs a salary account.

Sheila Kiluta, an accountant with a city-based Sacco says these instant loans help many employees overcome emergency situations.

"This is especially so for those employees earning below average salaries. Further, Saccos have helped the wise accumulate assets as well as establish alternative sources of income," she says.

But there is a fear that some Saccos and banks are too eager to hook employees into these advances since they make profits. "An in-house Sacco can easily end up being a parasite to its members.

The society knows it will effect deductions from employees without fail hence little chance of a default account," says Richard Kioko, an accountant.

Mike Nderitu, a financial consultant, says employees should only take credit attached to his/her salary as the last resort.

"I won’t advise any employee to be addicted to attaching the salary to get any form of a short- term loan. The figure applied for is so little and is recovered instantly, in full and plus interests," he says.