How pawning got me through college + my first sangla experience

We were an OFW family before, my father was a seafarer, a Chief Engineer. Most of the people who asked my Papa’s work in the ship would often say… Wow, eh di malaki na sweldo nya? or Kaya pala kahit di na magtrabaho si Mama mo e. But the truth is, we also struggle with money, especially when Papa’s contract ends and is still waiting for the next assignment/destination. I’m sure most seafarer families can relate to this. If he’s lucky, it will only take a month, but sometimes it takes 3 or more months which eventually depletes their savings or emergency fund. So eto na nga, wala na ngang savings, marami pang requirements like medical exam bago maka-akyat ulit sa barko, tapos enrollment pa namin.

I can still vividly recall how my Nanay reaches out to the innermost part of our closet, nilalabas na ni Nanay ang mga pambato nyang alahas. Hindi naman palasuot ng alahas si Nanay, my parents bought them primarily for emergency purposes. Nanay will always go to Cebuana Lhuillier’s branch in Monumento, sabi nya, mataas daw kasi mag-turing. I learned later on what she meant, that Cebuana Lhuillier has the highest appraisal rate. She will pawn the jewelry so that we can enroll for the school year. The take home money from the pawned jewelry helped to tide us over until Papa will be able to send us money.

My parents surely needed some polishing on their money-spending habits but thank goodness for the jewelries, my brother and I were able to finish college despite our up-and-down money situation.

Related: I won’t make the money mistake my father made

Now that I have my own family, we see to it that we have enough emergency funds. I own some pieces of jewelry but I don’t think of it as pang-sanla. I never thought that I will step inside a pawnshop again until we bumped into Ruth dela Cruz one afternoon in Makati. My kumares Pehpot, Levy, and Peachy were on our way out from Conti’s and Ruth is on her way to buy school supplies. “Doktora” Ruth has a golden heart (na hindi nasasanla :p) and she adopted a class in Mindoro and she sends supplies every school year. We offered to help Ruth, problem is… we don’t have cash on hand.

Well, someone had this brilliant idea that we can go to a nearby pawnshop and see if we can raise the money needed to help Ruth. We went to the first pawnshop we saw but sadly, parang ang baba ng appraisal. Pehpot knows the value of her necklace, kaya hindi nya dun sinangla. Given Cebuana Lhuillier’s reputation of having the highest appraisal pawnshop in the Philippines, we went to their Jupiter branch and have it appraised. Guess what, the appraisal rate is almost 2,000 pesos higher than the other pawnshop!

Para mas malinaw ang kwento, watch my Kumare Pehpot’s VLOG:

Na-curious din ako with the value of my jewelries kaya I asked the staff to appraise my earrings and also asked them about the pawning process aka paano magsangla. Wala namang pila kapag magsasangla or magpapa-appraise ng alahas, they have a dedicated lane for other services like remittance, bills payment, etc.

The staff mentioned that pawning is easy with Cebuana Lhuillier, they have 2,200 branches nationwide.

Paano magsangla sa Cebuana Lhuillier? (How to pawn at Cebuana Lhuillier)

1. Visit any Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop branch and present the item to be pawned. Don’t forget to bring 1 valid ID.
2. Advise the branch personnel if you agree with the appraised value and net proceeds.
3. Sign the pawn ticket on the space provided.
4. Count the money received and secure the pawn ticket, which is required to be presented during renewal or redemption of the pawned item.

I had a negative view about pawning given our circumstances before. But come to think of it, if it weren’t for the pawned jewelries, I might have stopped a semester or two in college. And now, I’m glad that we were able to raise money for the students in Mindoro in time for the school year.

Thanks to Cebuana Lhuillier’s highest appraisal rate, we got the money needed to help those kids, and thank you Ruth for letting the #KumareBloggers be part of your advocacy.

If you want to know more about pawning and how Cebuana Lhuillier appraises your jewelry, they have an appraisal calculator in their site: www.cebuanalhuillier.com/pawning/.