The Inner Workings of Personal Loans
If you’re considering taking out a loan for any form of a personal goal, it’s smart to look at and arrange a few things beforehand. A mortgage is something severe and for a more extended period, so don’t only look at favorable loan terms but also think about whether you can keep repaying the loan or not.
In this article, we will give you some tips and tricks to boost your chances of getting your loan approved.
Look further than just your bank
Almost everyone in the United States has a debit card and bank account with one of the bigger banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo). They have been customers there forever since they can imagine, and when they start looking for a mortgage or loan, they go straight to their ‘home bank’. Which is logical, they are already customer there, the staff knows them and their financial backgrounds and for them to handle all their finances at one place gives them an overview. What they might not realize is that with this choice of having everything under one roof, a specific price tag is attached. In the consumed credit arena, big banks aren’t the cheapest providers. Once you compare the interest rates of big banks with internet loan providers or intermediaries, for instance, there can be quite a considerable difference. Once you look at the interest rate over the entire duration of the loan, this can be thousands of dollars in contrast (that has to be paid back). Apart from just the interest rate and height of the loan, the terms and duration of the investment also come into the equation. It’s always smart to compare several quotations from different loan providers with each other to check out which one is the cheapest.
Choose the monthly charge that fits your loan target
With a lot of loan providers, you can choose from several different monthly expenses that come with your loan, with both minimum and maximum amounts. The monthly charge is the amount of money that you monthly have to pay off to your loan provider and consists of a part of the borrowed money and some interest. At first glance, a low monthly charge sounds attractive but do realize that the smaller the monthly cost, the longer the duration of the loan will be. A longer-term of the loan will mean that you pay more interest over time.
On the other hand, you could also set your monthly charge quite high so that you pay off your loan quicker and pay a little less in interest during the total duration of the loan. Do note that with a substantial monthly charge, you might have to alter your monthly spending budget. You might run into trouble paying off your regular monthly expenses. Once choosing your monthly fee, it pays to do your research and shop around until you found the right balance. A loan that comes with a monthly charge that fits your budget and comes with an acceptable duration.
Choose the right duration that fits your loan target
You borrow money or take out a loan with a goal. This goal has ‘limited use’ most of the time. This is also called the ‘economic life span’ of something. The best thing to do is to determine the duration of your loan according to the economic life span of what you’re planning on buying. It would feel kind of weird once you’re still paying off a loan for something that already broke down. One of the classic examples of such a case is in this case of cars. Most cars have an economic lifespan of about five years. Therefore, car loans come in 60-month or 5-year formats most of the time. If the offered monthly charge doesn’t fit your budget, then see if you can make concessions in your loan target and maybe consider buying a smaller car or less luxury kitchen.
Something else to take into consideration while choosing the right loan duration is to calculate in certain risks in your financial future. For instance, getting children or reaching retirement age. In this case’s you’ll face higher monthly costs and a drop in your income. If this kind of situation (or similar ones) arise shortly, it’s smart to calculate these into the duration of the loan. You might even want to alter the expiration date of the loan to just before this event will happen and impact your finances.
Choose the loan form that fits your desires and loan target
You have two kinds of loans you can choose from when getting a loan. Either revolving credit or a personal loan. Whichever type suits you the best depends on your spending purpose and personal preferences. Revolving credit is a flexible way of borrowing money. Paid off amounts of money you can withdraw again until the agreed credit limit, but the interest rate is variable (it can increase or decrease). Because of the flexibility, a revolving credit doesn’t have a set duration. Revolving loans can be the right way of borrowing money during a timeframe where you want to make significant expenditures. You can then withdraw the needed money from the credit line any time you want and only pay interest once you retire. A personal loan is a little bit less flexible. Both the investment and the duration are set in a contract, thus withdrawing more money than agreed upon is not possible. In contrast to revolving credit, you always exactly know what you have to pay back, right at the beginning of the loan. Because you have a set duration, you can plan to spend accordingly.
