Personal loans
Personal loans resolve life’s little crises and allow for life’s sweet indulgences
It seems like time and money are mutually exclusive: You never have both at the same time. Stay at home moms enjoy being able to take care of their families and homes, and being able to respond to emergencies. However, without a full-time salary, vacations, home repairs, new furniture and summer camps may have become out of reach. When the refrigerator dies, what may have once been an inconvenience, can become a crisis.
That’s where personal loans come in. No other loan affords borrowers the flexibility like that of personal loans. Unlike most loans, personal loans can be used for anything from urgent needs to desperately needed vacations.
In the past, many people felt comfortable pulling out a credit card to meet their financial needs. But in the new economy, many credit card issuers have raised interest rates and lowered credit limits. Today, consumers are working hard to pay off their credit card debts and are applying a new restraint on credit card spending. Personal loans, however, are less expensive than high-interest credit cards, and, with a good or excellent credit score, the interest rate can be as low as 6.99%.
The convenience of personal loans makes them an attractive option. Personal loans can be obtained online and deposited into the borrower’s bank account in as little as 24 hours. When the family car breaks down, the roof leaks or the washing machine dies, convenience and a rapid turnaround are a necessity.
The flexibility of personal loans allows for home improvements like landscaping projects, refurbished bathrooms or professional painting – the investments real estate agents encourage homeowner to make for maximum return.
When all the appliances are functional and the house is all spruced up, personal loans can be used for a much-deserved vacation. Using personal loans for travel allows time to plan the ideal trip and take advantage of the best bargains. Studies show that children who travel get better grades and have a better grasp of geography and foreign languages.
Alternatively, personal loans also provide the option of sending the kids off to summer camp while their parents enjoy a relaxing, romantic getaway of their own.
In short, personal loans save money, save grief and allow for the sort of things we all need and deserve.
Vacation loan for holiday reunions
It seems like everyday for the last couple years I’ve been bombarded with the same negative “thou shalt not” messages about going into debt, and I’ve been obedient … until now. I’ve decided to thumb my nose at the nags and naysayers and take out a vacation loan.
You can call it rationalization, but I choose to call the results of a recent Harris Interactive Survey my justification for a vacation loan that will allow me to travel during this holiday season. I’ve decided my emotional need for connection and continuity supercedes my need for just a wee bit more financial security.
According to the Harris survey, people are willing to suffer the travails of holiday travel—in my case, even though it means taking out a vacation loan—so they can
create memories; maintain traditions; reconnect and build relationships; and,
improve their sense of well-being.
All of the above apply to me.
Two of my friends died this year. I chose not to take out a vacation loan to attend their memorials, and chose instead to apply the money to my Lowe’s credit card. I congratulated myself for being grown up and responsible, but took no comfort from it. Though I gained a couple points on my credit score, I still felt nothing but loss. The loss of my middle-aged friends brought home for me the knowledge of how tenuous life is.
In counterbalance, I reconnected with high school friends I’d lost track of 30 years ago (thank you Facebook), and I want to solidify those relationships, especially one with another woman who, like me, had her only child at 41.
The last time I went home to Ohio was two years ago when my sister had surgery for uterine cancer. I rationalized taking out a vacation loan then, not so much because I wanted to visit Ohio in January, but because my sister needed me, and I was doing it for her.
This year I’ve taken out a vacation loan for me, for my sister and for my friends. But more than all that, I’m doing it for my son. I want him to see that relationships with family and friends are important, tenuous and can be lost in an instant. I want him to see me living my values.
I also value financial security, and being a middle-aged woman with a young son means that’s especially important, but I have enough financial security that I can afford the small monthly payment this vacation loan will cost me over the next couple years. What I can’t afford is losing connection with my family and old friends.
Travel loans can take you home for the holidays
It’s holiday time, and that means time for families and friends to gather from far flung locales. Unfortunately, the airlines just announced they’ll be charging an additional $30 per ticket for holiday travel on top of booking and luggage fees. If you’re worried that you might not have enough cash in the bank after you buy gifts for the kids, you should look into travel loans.
Travel loans are typically unsecured personal loans. Their interest rates are usually higher than secured loans, but lower than credit card interest rates. If you have good credit, you may be able to find travel loans with interest rates as low as 6%. Read more
Is an unsecured personal loan right for you?
Personal loans come in two flavors: secured or unsecured. The difference between them is simple enough—you’ll put up collateral to secure a secured personal loan but not for an unsecured personal loan. The only question is which works best for you.
An unsecured personal loan presents a higher risk for the lender, so requires a higher credit score and income. That risk level also means that an unsecured personal loan comes with a higher interest rate than a secured loan.
So what are the benefits of an unsecured personal loan? Their broad accessibility, for starters. Millions of people—especially city dwellers—don’t own houses or cars, which are commonly used as collateral. And, if they don’t have financial assets like certificates of deposit or annuities to offer as security, an unsecured personal loan might be the only option.
And, now that home values have tanked, millions of homeowners no longer have enough equity in their houses to use them as collateral for an unsecured personal loan. And, frankly, in the new economy a credit score of 725 isn’t as shiny and promising as it used to be the eyes of many lenders.
There are other benefits to an unsecured personal loan, even for those who can offer acceptable collateral. The asset securing the loan will have to be forfeited if financial calamity strikes the borrower. A period of unemployment, a family member’s medical bills or any number of hardships could mean losing a family home or necessary transportation.
For help finding the best personal loans, contact American Unsecured, one of the nation’s largest loan-consulting firms.
The difference between a secured loan and an unsecured loan
Paper or plastic? Decaf or caffeinated? Secured or unsecured? If you’re looking for a loan, but don’t know whether you need a secured loan or an unsecured loan, this is your chance to figure it all out.
The primary difference between a secured and an unsecured loan is whether or not the borrower has to put up collateral to secure the loan. For a secured loan, a lender will insist on collateral to minimize their risk. An auto loan, for instance, is secured by the car itself; the lender simply repossesses the car if the borrower fails to make payments on the loan.
On the other hand, an unsecured loan is one without collateral. When obtaining an unsecured loan, the borrower doesn’t have to specify its intended use, and it can be used for just about anything. For instance, an unsecured loan can be used for something as prosaic as debt consolidation, as pleasant as a vacation, or as essential as an emergency medical procedure.
Accordingly, because the lender can’t repossess a week in Hawaii, a zero-balance credit card or the stitches in a toddler’s forehead, the interest rate on an unsecured loan is higher than on a secured loan, reflecting the lender’s greater risk exposure.
However, the interest on an unsecured loan is usually lower than on credit cards, and is certainly lower than the interest rate charged for credit card cash advances. As an added benefit, an unsecured loan almost always comes with a fixed interest rate and carries no annual fee.
Personal loans for college students
How will you pay your college expenses?
If you think personal loans aren’t the way to go, you have some other options. Luckily, there are a few reliable revenue sources students have always known about. For instance, after taxes, a part-time, minimum-wage job will bring in roughly $4,500 during the school year. Or, there are some blood banks that pay plasma donors as much as $35 per donation, and will allow two donations a week, netting roughly $2,500 a year. And all students seem to have easy access to mountains of empty beer cans that can be recycled for easy cash.
But selling blood and beer cans isn’t enough to fill the gap for today’s college students. Getting an undergraduate degree means leaving college with an average of $20,000 in student loan debt. Graduates of law or medical schools take on an average of $100,000 in student loan debt.
Obviously, college students need another way to meet their financial needs, and personal loans are among the solutions. If you’re one of those panicked students or parents, AmericanUnsecured might be able to help you find unsecured personal loans. AmericanUnsecured isn’t a lender; they’re a loan consulting firm that can help you learn more about personal loans and find the lender that best meets your needs. In fact, they’ve been the largest loan consulting firm in the country for the last nine years, helping more than 500,000 people annually.
Vacation Loans Can Turn Dreams Into Reality
Everybody says they need it. Few people actually get it. Europeans get more of it than most. Research shows that the more you get of it, the better your performance.
How about you? Where would you like to vacation? Or maybe the better question is, “where can you afford to vacation?” Sadly, for a lot of people, the answer is nowhere. But a vacation loan can change all that. Read more