Posts Tagged ‘Lenders’

Some Useful Tips on Securing A Good Value Personal Loan

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Some Useful Tips on Securing A Good Value Personal Loan

Be sure to ask for quotes not only from your current bank or any other nearby, but also from other finance companies, and online lenders as well. Make sure the lenders you enquire from aren’t looking up your credit rating unless you’re ready to proceed with them alone. Any more than four credit checks in one month looks suspect, and may affect your credit rating. Ask if they’re going to check your credit-rating first, to be on the safe side.

You will be surprised to find that loans offered by online money-lending companies are often more convenient and with less restrictive conditions than those offered by banks. This is because banks earn money by a number of different means, as opposed to online lenders, whose primary income is a direct result of the amount of money they lend.

Depending on how bad your credit history is, it may be very difficult to find unsecured loans, as most lenders will impose very high rates, and others will simply reject your application.

Although it is still possible to find convenient low-rated unsecured or bad credit loans, the chances of that are very small. The smartest choice is to look for a secured loan instead; there are a lot of lenders willing to offer you bad credit loans at low rates if you have any collateral to offer them as a warranty of payback. Depending on the amount of money you are borrowing, lenders will take your car or house as security and happily allow you to get your loan.

Have in mind that it is always better to pay back the money you borrowed as soon as you are able to.

Try to choose among those loans that allow you to make early payments; the quicker you pay back, the less interest you pay. On the other hand, if you extend the duration of the loan, you will have to pay much more money in interest.

Although you may not actually take out a loan, it will be shown in your record and may look very bad on your history when applying for another in the future, so limit yourself to asking for quotes and apply only for that loan offer you consider to be the best. If your application gets rejected, however, you may move on to the next best offer on your list.

In your research it’s advisable to review if the provider is a member of the Finance Industry Standards Association (FISA), which follows the confidentiality guidelines set out for this association, and also those providers registered under the Data Protection Act (DPA) who adhere to the letter of the law from the Data Protection Register.

Credit Repair – Maintain the Correct Debt To Credit Ratio

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Credit Repair – Maintain the Correct Debt To Credit Ratio

Many people believe that paying off their credit cards every month is a good idea. And if you are trying to stay out of debt, then I would have to agree with you. If you are trying to build credit and look good to your creditors, then paying off your credit cards every month is actually a bad idea. Let me explain.

Creditors and lenders dont make there money from annual fees on credit cards. They make there money on the interest that you pay each month. If you are paying off your balances each month, the creditors and lenders arent making any money. Creditors want to see someone that can maintain a balance each month and make payments on time. This goes a long way in showing your credit worthiness and actually is built into the algorithm that calculates your credit score.

Your debt to credit ratio is very simple to calculate. Suppose you have a credit card with a $10,000 limit. If your balance on this card is $2500 then your debt to credit ratio would be 25%. A good ratio to maintain to help raise your score would be between 30-35%.
Your ratio is based on all your credit card limits and balances and combined. This actually gives you some flexibility.

If you had a limit on one card of $5000 and a balance of $3250 then your debt to credit ratio would be around 75%. To fix this you could pay off a big portion of your balance or you could ask the creditor to raise your limit to $10,000. The latter costs you no money but alters your ratio to around 35%. With multiple cards there are many combinations to achieve a good credit ratio by upping the limits on some cards and paying down others. I think you get the idea.

It may not be necessary to maintain this high ratio on your credit cards all the time. Use this technique to build your credit fast. If you will soon be in the market to get a home loan or auto loan, perhaps begin moving towards this ratio several months before shopping for a loan. Once you get a loan you can let this ratio go down to something more manageable.

This is just one little technique that can have huge ramifications on your credit score. I hope it helps. And remember to make all your payments on time. This cant be stressed enough. Those 30 and 60 day late payments will kill your credit faster than you can repair it. Good luck!

Poor Credit History – Which Is Best, A Credit Card

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Poor Credit History – Which Is Best, A Credit Card Or Personal Loan?

There was a time when poor credit meant you could kiss any chance of getting credit good-bye. Credit cards were extremely difficult to get if you had any kind of compromising information contained in your credit report. These days have long since passed. Today, if you have bad credit, there is a whole range of options open to you for sources of credit.

From personal loans, debt consolidation loans and credit cards, they are all now available in one form another to borrowers with a poor credit history. The thing you will have to remember however is that they come with different terms and are offered with different conditions than ordinary credit.

Typically, lenders who wish to increase their share of the market will search out new groups of customers who they can sell their product to. The bad credit segment is one area that lenders have begun offering most of their services on a large scale where before they did not. They simply assess the extra risk involved in lending to this group and then make sure that they charge correspondingly higher to compensate themselves for the extra risk.

Personal loans are probably the most common form of credit that most people with bad credit will be seeking. This is usually because they wish to consolidate their existing debts. Personal loans are the most common way to consolidate debts. The personal loan will have fixed repayments over a set number of years and this will give you a definite date by which the debts will be clear. This is a big moral advantage to many bad debt customers who are tired of the extra hassle and stress of being in debt.

Personal loans will also offer you far lower interest rates than most types of credit card. The main disadvantage of personal loans is that they will usually seek to be secured over your home. This puts your home directly at risk and means that you have be confident that you can keep up with repayments if you want to keep your home.

Credit Monitoring Services – Great tool for credit repair

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

A credit monitoring service is an annual membership service. This service typically gives you immediate access to your credit report from one or all 3 major credit bureaus. You will also receive access to your credit score. This could be the credit bureaus own score or possibly your FICO score. You may want to opt for a service that provides access to your FICO score. This is the score most lenders will use to determine whether to approve your application for a loan or credit card.

As you begin repairing your credit you will be able to monitor your credit score at periodic intervals. This will let you see if the changes you are making are having a positive effect. This can be a great benefit as you will be able to tell immediately what is working and what isnt. Some of the services even offer tools to let you see what changes will benefit you the most, such as paying off a certain credit card, before you even make such a change. This can be very beneficial in determining your strategy to repairing your credit.

By combining your credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus, you will easily be able to see the differences in your credit reports between all credit bureaus. Since each credit bureau maintains its own consumer credit database, dont be surprised to find differences on each one of your credit reports. This is why its essential to get a copy of all 3 credit reports because you wont know which credit agency in advance that a lender might check your credit with.

Alerting is a feature that allows you to receive email notices if any major changes happen to your credit report. Most services allow you to monitor changes from all 3 credit bureaus. This can be an ideal way to detect Identity Theft. Also, if you are in the process of getting a home loan or auto loan, you will want to know ahead of time if something changes in your credit report that may hinder your approval process.

Many of the credit monitoring services even offer Identity Theft insurance. By being enrolled in their service, you entitled up to $25,000 in damages if you are a victim of Identity Theft.

Credit Monitoring as a service then allows you access to your credit report at all 3 credit bureaus, and the ability to see the bureaus own credit score or you FICO score. Alerts can be setup to notify you of significant changes to your credit that could be Identity Theft.

Check out my 3 bureau credit monitoring review page for a breakdown of the most popular companies offering credit monitoring services.

Credit Counseling Vs. Debt Settlement

Sunday, March 6th, 2011

Credit counseling or debt settlement? While naturally Franklin Debt Relief is inclined to argue on behalf of debt settlement over credit counseling, we also recognize that its impossible to declare which program is better because it depends on a number of variables that differ from individual to individual. The purpose of this article is break down which factors you should consider before choosing the appropriate option.

1.What can you afford? Credit counseling programs tend to be a lot more expensive than debt settlement programs. The reason is simple: credit counseling only produces results on the interest rates, whereas debt settlement is able to actually negotiate the amount you owe. Simply put, if you are in a true financial bind, then the clear choice for you should be debt settlement, and on a pure money saved basis, debt settlement will almost always be the answer. Although this is undoubtedly an important factor, it is not the only variable to consider before making a decision on which program is best for you.

2.What sort of credit impact can you tolerate? Some credit counselors out there will undoubtedly tout that their program doesnt affect your credit score negatively. This is a play on words. Sure, your score wont drop, but ask any lender what the impact is to your loan application. Let me save you some time—its devastating. That being said, debt settlement is no better for your credit, and lenders in general definitely do not like seeing debtors seeking outside help for their financial situation. On the flip side, they definitely do not like seeing the past due marks from enrolling in a settlement program. So lets consider this example: Four years ago, John decided to use credit counseling, and Mary decided to follow the debt settlement path. They both have the same income and expenses, and they both apply for a $200,000 mortgage. Who is more likely to get it—John, who is 1 year away from completing his credit counseling program, or Mary, who finished her debt settlement program 1 year and half ago and has since been rebuilding her credit? While this may vary from lender to lender, in general Mary would be considered the better loan applicant. What if John paid a lot per month and they both finished their respective programs in the same amount of time? By itself, the credit counseling program would be better for your credit, but when you factor in the fact that Mary would probably have more savings to contribute to a down payment, shed still probably be considered the better loan applicant. Do I think this is fair? Not at all. Its ridiculous that lenders are so harsh on clients of credit counseling programs. Unfortunately, the system is flawed, but until there are adjustments made to correct it, debt settlement clients will be in a more favorable position to obtain new credit upon completion of their program.

3.Who do you owe? So you can save more money in debt settlement, but not always. If you owe a more aggressive creditor like Citibank, then its possible that credit counseling or bankruptcy may be a better option for you. The reason: Citibank not only tends to settle for more on average, but they are also more likely to pursue legal action to collect a debt. Although under most circumstances debt settlement is still successful with these creditors, it is a much riskier undertaking when youre dealing with Citibank. If you cannot afford credit counseling and your debt is exclusively with Citibank, then unfortunately youre probably better off filing bankruptcy.

4. What is your personality type? Ive read just about every article online regarding credit counseling versus debt settlement, and Im amazed by how most finance authors eliminate the human element from this discussion. The bottom line: debt settlement is not for the faint-hearted. There is no guarantee that everything will work out completely as planned. Some settlements may be higher than estimated. Some settlements may be lower than estimated. You will inevitably get some creditor calls. This is the nature of the program, and you must be willing to accept some level of uncertainty before enrolling.

I organized the following 4 questions in this order on purpose. After all, if you cant afford credit counseling, then its pretty much out of the picture as an option for you anyway. I dont mean to sound overly cynical, but we live in a material world and issues like having an anxious personality must be sacrificed when you dont have the money necessary to freely exercise this aspect of your character. On the flip side, if you have 100% Citibank debt, it would be foolish for you to choose debt settlement over credit counseling or bankruptcy just because you fancy yourself a risk-taker.

There are countless other variables that influence whether debt settlement or credit counseling is appropriate for you (i.e. what state you live in, your income source, etc.). Your best bet is to discuss your individual situation with someone knowledgeable in these arenas.

Personal Loans UK.

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

Negotiating the Best Personal Loans UK Deal How To Save Money

When it comes to taking out a personal loans UK deal then you probably already realise that you can best do this by getting the lowest interest rates that you possibly can. This is, of course, bound to save some of your money and it does, of course, make perfect sense to shop around for the best deal you can find. The fact is that it is relatively easy nowadays to find the lowest interest rates for any kind of personal loans UK package. All you need to do is to go online and to look at broker sites and loan comparison sites to check out options from different lenders for the type of loan that you want.

But, there is another way to save money here that a lot of us dont make enough use of. Its easy to do all you need to do is to make sure that you read the terms and conditions attached to your personal loans UK offer before you sign on the dotted line. What a lot of us dont realise is that cheap personal loans UK deals often dont work out to be as cheap as you might at first imagine. Working out whether a good deal may actually be a bad one is simple as you can soon spot the signs if you read the terms and conditions.

For example, few of us realise that somewhere down the line we will probably have more money to play with than we do at the moment. We might, for example, get a raise in salary or an unexpected bonus from our boss. Or we may simply come into a bit of money or find that we have fewer expenses to pay in general. If this happens then most of us will look to repay our debts with the cash that we have spare this makes perfect sense as it means that youll repay less interest and therefore save money if you pay off a personal loans UK deal early.

But, many lenders that offer bargain basement rates put clauses in their terms and conditions that make this kind of thing hard (and costly) to do. So, for example, they may charge you extra if you want to pay extra off your loan or want to repay your personal loans UK deal early. This could well mean that the cheap loan deal you were given will actually cost you more than you thought.

There are many lenders out there, however, that wont charge you for doing this. And they also wont charge higher interest rates into the bargain. So, to save money, you should be looking for a low cost deal without repayment costs attached to it. This is actually an easy thing to do if you shop for deals online but remember to read the small print before you put pen to paper!

Cleaning the Mess in Your Credit Report

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

An important factor that plays an important role in
maintaining a clean credit report is actually the
contents of your credit report. The credit report is
pretty much the story of your financial life,
contained in a detailed document.

The credit report carries the credit score, which is a
numeric ranking usually between 300 and 850. Several
lenders use the credit score to help them decided
whether you are worthy of a credit. More so, the score
is also used to determine your capability of paying a
loan. The credit report is important and cleaning or
maintaining a good credit report is vital to your
financial survival.

A Look inside the Credit Report

In a credit report, the first entry is normally your
personal information. It includes your name, listed
telephone number/s, previous and current addresses,
reported differences of your Social Security Number,
past and present employer and the date of birth.

The information regarding your credit accounts follows
your personal information entry. This is also listed
in detail and normally includes loans, the maximum
loan amount, and information of any joint account
holders or co-signers. The credit report also
incorporate a section, called Inquiries, which lists
any person who has recently requested a copy of the
credit report.

There are some states, wherein the credit report
contains public record information. This information
can feature overdue payments, bankruptcies or other
judgments in the court. Normally, these entries can
last for up to ten years and may affect your chances
of obtaining a loan negatively.

How to Start

Firstly, in order to clean your credit report, you
will need to order a copy of the report. You must
determine what is out of date or inaccurate, after
which you can submit a letter to the bureau requesting
fixes to the information. This process may take a long
time and you may be required to do several follow-ups
with each bureau before achieving a clean credit
report. However, to perform this correctly, you must
be aware of the information the credit agencies are
allowed to report and the duration.

Ordering a credit report can be easily done and
accessible to everyone, since at least one free report
can be obtained by the consumer each year; this rule
is also included under the FCRA or Fair Credit
Reporting Act. More so, the consumer is also allowed
to obtain a free copy of his or her credit report each
year from each of the three major companies handling
credit reporting, namely the Experian, TransUnion, and
Equifax. However, in case you have already obtained a
copy of your credit report this year, you may be
required to pay an additional fee if you want another
copy.

Once you have obtained your report, review it
carefully. Every detail must be inspected since
bureaus can sometimes confuse names, addresses or
employers. Most often, people who have common names
have credit reports that may contain information on
other variations of their name.

Additionally, it is important to perform a periodic
check on the credit report. It is advisable to order a
copy of the report once a year and dispute any
possible inaccuracies. Always take careful steps in
handling your payments and make sure not to make any
late payments. Time is of the essence and even minimum
payments should not be neglected. Remember that
carefully managing your credit can add as much as
fifty points to your credit score per year.

Helpful Hints On Personal Loans

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Are you thinking of taking out a personal loan! If the answer is yes then you have to ask yourself some questions first. This will make sure that the loan you choose is the right one to suit your needs.

Below are some of the most common questions you should be asking.

Do I really need a personal loan?
You have to ask yourself if the purchase you are about to buy is necessarily, as you may have this debt for a year or two.

Can I afford to takeout a personal loan?
This is properly the most important question you will have to ask yourself, debt advisers says that a non- mortgage monthly repayment debt should not be anymore than 5% of your net income. This is the total you walkout with after tax, say you take home 2000 a month then the most you should be paying back is about a 100 a month.

How much should I borrow?
Most lenders offer a cheaper APR on a larger loan; each lender has their different levels of interest rates and will change them with accordance to how much you borrow. Sometimes its best to up your loan just a small bit to get the best interest rate.
For example maybe you only want a loan of 4.500 your APR maybe 10.5% but if you go for a 5,000 loan the APR drops to 9.6%. So over all you may end up saving by taking out a bit more just something to watch out for.

Where do I go for a personal loan?
Most people think of the bank first nothing wrong with that, but know there are so many places to look. Everywhere you turn you see adverts for loans including the newspapers, TV, mail, supermarkets and the Internet. The competition at the moment from the lenders is great; they all want your business so there are some great deals on offer. You just have to look for them take your time and you are sure to get the best deal around

Will I be covered if I become ill or unemployed?
Most lenders will have PPI (payment protection Insurance) please check the policy carefully and ask questions. As not all these policies will cover you and they can be expensive, sometime its best to shop around for a different policy.

Can I pay my loan off early?
Yes you can and unbelievably 60% of people do, again check with your lender as some add on penalties for paying off your loan early. Some lenders charge two or three months interest unbelievable but true.

What happens if I get turned down for a loan?
First check why is it because your credit rating is poor or is it because youre asking for too much money. If your income is low you may be asking for too much, if this is the case reduce your request. If its poor credit rating check out why and try and sort that out first, before you reapply

Hopefully these answers will help you, just remember workout what you need the loan for first, then make sure you can afford to make the repayments. Take your time when looking for your personal loan, as there are some great deals out there at the moment.

Put Your Expenses on Right Track Credit Card Debt

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Put Your Expenses on Right Track Credit Card Debt Management

Credit card the well known name for plastic money allows you to spend more than you have and pay later for them. This property makes it the most widely used form of debt. But there is a very big disadvantage that people in ignorance spend larger amounts and when the time for repayment along with the interest arises than they are short of money. At that time you again take debts to make repayments. The process goes on and the trap of debts surrounds you. Credit card debt management can help you in controlling your expenses in a much better way.

Credit card debt management in simple words is how to manage your debts efficiently and effectively. You need to follow certain things for an efficient credit card debt management. These are:

To began with go for cash purchases rather than using credit cards as the interest rate is very high on credit cards.

Dont apply for and use too many credit cards.

Use a debit card instead if you dont want to carry cash around.

Plan a budget for the month according to your income and spend accordingly.

Get the help of debt management consultants and agencies to plan your budget.

24 hours availability of consultants is there, so you can call them for their services at any point of time.

Credit Card Debt Management agencies prepare debt management plans for you. If you are using too many credit cards and finding it difficult to pay for it separately you can take the help of these agencies. You can deposit the entire amount of credit cards bills to them. They themselves will pay different bills from that money. They will teach you ways to control your spending`. These agencies in addition to credit card debt management will also provide you other service such as if you are carrying too many debts with you, they can talk to your lenders for lowering the installments amount. They also give advices on how to improve your credit score.

For applying to such services you need to log on to websites of consulting agencies and fill an application form with requisite details such as you name, address and contact information, your income, number of credit cards you are using, details of how much you spend through credit card. After getting application professional advisers will call you and discuss your financial status and a proposed budget plan with you.

Besides these measures as it is said precaution starts at home, so its up to you to decide the direction in which your finance diverts with credit card debt management.