Tag Archives: finance
The Most Popular Uses For A Personal Loan
The number of people taking out personal loans has risen dramatically over the last ten or fifteen years, but what are the reasons for this? In this article we’ll look at the main uses of the loans that we take out.
Debt Consolidation
This is possibly the biggest single reason people take out a personal loan, with billions being lent to help people sort out their finances. The basic idea is to take out one single loan that you use to pay off all your other debts, leaving you with just one repayment to make. Not only does this make your financial life simpler and more easily managed, but if done properly the result should be that your debt is costing you less overall to service each month.
New Car
Although there are many different kinds of auto finance available, from basic car loans to vehicle plus finance packages, many of these deals work out to be quite expensive, and are often suited to people with poorer credit ratings. A normal personal loan, with a lower interest rate and less restrictions, can be a better option for funding a vehicle purchase for many people. The key benefit is that you’re free to spend the loan amount on any car from any dealer, or even buy privately – an option not usually open to users of dedicated auto finance packages.
Home Improvements
The extreme rise in property prices over the last decade or so has left many people with large amounts of equity in their home. This means that their house is worth far more than the mortgage still owed on it. For some homeowners it can make good sense to ‘cash in’ some of this equity in the form of a loan, using the money to reinvest in their property by improving it. This can mean extra building works, improvements to faciilities such as bathrooms and kitchens, landscape gardening, or any other costly exercise that will ultimately increase the value of a property even further in the coming years.
Vacation or Travel
Also given the large amounts of equity many people have, a popular option is to free up some of this cash to finance a once in a lifetime vacation, cruise, or other kind of expensive travel. It’s not generally recommended that you use your home as collateral for this kind of loan spending, as you’ll be risking the future of your home with little to show for it once the vacation is over. An unsecured personal loan, however, is an ideal way of spreading the cost of an unforgettable experience over a year or two.
Wedding
One final popular reason for taking out a personal loan is to pay for a wedding, either your own or a child’s. Weddings these days can be incredibly expensive, usually running well into four or even five figures, and not many people have this kind of money in reserve. Naturally, a wedding day should be a day to remember always, and so many people feel it’s well worth the cost of taking out a loan in order to make the day as perfect as possible. The funds will also be useful in paying for a great honeymoon, and even providing a few household essentials when moving into a first home.
Home Loan With – For Bad Credit?
When a lender is considering a prospective client for a loan, it goes like this: What is the credit rating? What is the credit background? How much money do they have for a down payment?
Sure, a gigantically large deposit can help to cover a spotty payment history. However, you should be prepared for the absolute worst in fees and interest throughout the life of the loan.
In short there is no way around it. Even with a large deposit, you still need a supporting credit score and accompanying history to make home ownership a reality.
This was true before the credit crisis and now in the midst of many banks collapse, a good credit score and report is more vital than ever.
When someone asks about low scores and high down payments, I always want to know whether the client has done anything to try and improve their credit score. To the uninformed consumer your credit score can be a murky area.
With minimal effort you can obtain a copy of your report and see exactly what is there. Often, costly errors are the cause of low credit scores. Having cash on hand gives you the power to negotiate and settle your old debts. When you settle your debts, negotiation that in exchange for you payment the bad credit will be removed from your report.
If you don’t want to solve the errors your own, it might be wise to consider the help of a good credit attorney. For a low monthly fee and aggressive lawyer will tackle the problem of cleaning up your credit history and boosting your score.
Another fallacy is that it takes to long to clean up your credit. Nothing could be further from the truth!
It can take several months, to a year in the more severe cases, cleaning up a low credit score. Even in the worst cases of taking a year to turn yourself into a good credit risk you can save untold thousands in finance charges, fees and when you finance or borrow.
Therefore, if you have a large deposit and a low credit score, good! Turn your situation from good to great by taking some positive action today. The money you save will be worth it!