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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.
Unsecured High Risk Loan
An unsecured high risk loan can be hard to find, and even harder to find is an affordable interest rate, but there are things you can do to better the situation.
When lenders look at applications they decide who to lend to based on how much of a risk they are taking with each applicant that they won’t be repaid. When you have a bad credit history the lender sees this as a pattern, and decides it is riskier to lend to you than other people. If they decide to still lend to you, they raise the interest rates according to how much of a risk they feel they are taking. To ensure approval of your application, and to get offered the best interest rates possible, you want to show the company reasons you are likely to make your payments on time.
Unsecured high risk loans are given largely based on your credit score. Your score is determined based on the information in your credit report. The first thing you can do to better your application is to fix anything you can on the report. If accounts you’ve already paid are still marked open or overdue call the company and keep talking to them until that is fixed. If you have high credit card balances paying these down will also help a lot.
Another thing you can do is offer some form of collateral and apply for a secured loan, instead. In this case if you fail to make payments the company will repossess the item you offered as collateral. This greatly lowers the risk the lender is taking, and you are rewarded with lower interest rates, and an easier time finding approval. Of course, this increases the risk you are taking as well.
Other than doing any of the things stated above, the best thing you can do for your unsecured high risk loan application is play up your strong points. Do you have a steady income? Have you been with your current employer for several years? Do you have a budget plan that shows your expenses, and how you’ll be able to easily afford your monthly payments? These are all things the lenders will be interested in, and will help you. Also, if your credit issues are all around one particular event, like medical bills, divorce, etc, then have a short one or two sentence explanation prepared to tell the lender. You do not want to dwell on this, but companies do want to hear how you came to be in that problem in the past, and why it won’t happen this time.
Once you get funding, remember to make your payments on time. This unsecured high risk loan may be your chance to build up a positive credit history so you’ll have an easier time in the future.