The Times Australia
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Business and Money

How to Improve Your Finances by Taking a Personal Loan

  • Written by The Times

The world we live in is very hectic and fast-paced. So much so that we rarely have a real opportunity to make a stop, catch a break, and take some time to go through our personal finances. This unfortunate practice leads to some very bad financial habits and even worse life choices. Of course, things don’t have to remain such forever, so if you were planning on leaving this sinking ship, the opportunity now is just as good as ever. Let us take a look at how taking a personal loan can prove to be just the lifebelt you need right now.

Consolidating credit card loans

Credit cards are one of the most popular ways to get the things we want without having to save money or go through more complicated approval processes. The problem with them is that these smaller debts do tend to quickly stack up and people owning the cards have a very hard time keeping up the pace with the installments. According to a recent survey, the average American credit card debt is $5,525 which is not a small amount. Raising a personal loan allows you to consolidate all these debts in one stroke, get only one loan term to worry about, and avoid paying heavy installments rates that often go up to 16%.

Financing big one-time purchases

There comes a time when we need to spend big money on some kind of product or event that doesn't have a strong foothold in the traditional banking system unlike, let's say, cars and properties. We are talking about things like weddings, vacations, medical procedures, and so on. In most cases, people spend some time saving for these things and thus avoid dealing with pesky installments and interest. However, there are some emergent situations that don’t allow so much maneuvering space. In these instances, targeted and specific personal loans are the best way to solve these issues without any further financial damage.

Improving your credit score

Raising a loan for some big purchase like a house requires a pitch-perfect credit score which most of us don't have. To make things even worse, a credit score is improved by repaying debt, so if you never missed a single deadline but don't have a history of previous loans you will still end up not eligible for these types of loans. Raising a personal loan for some smaller purchases can go a long way in solving this problem. What’s even more important is that some online services like Jacaranda Finance will be ready to lend you money if you don’t have a perfect loan history helping you to improve this important score.

Helping you avoid pop up fees

The financial world is riddled with various hidden, pop-up fees you usually learn only when you start stumbling over them. Personal loans are, in most cases, completely devoid of such expenses giving you a completely transparent view of prepayment fees, late payment fees, origination fees, and similar costs you may encounter. And, keeping in mind these loans usually come with fixed interest rates you can plan out your future finances with perfect precision. If the lender fails to provide this information or even a formal Truth-in-Lending Disclosure you should skip this company and look for a more reliable vendor.

Reducing the interests on bigger loans

Last but not least, we would like to remind you that the money you get through personal loans doesn’t have to be immediately spent. As a matter of fact, you can put a couple of these loans aside and use them to relieve some of the bigger expenses waiting for you down the road. So, if you are planning to buy a house, the bigger the down payment you make at the beginning, the less money you will need to repay through the property loan. This means lower interest rates as well. The bigger down payment is also asked if you don’t have a stellar credit score. Personal loans move both of these issues off the table.

We hope these few examples gave you a general idea about all the ways in which personal loans can be leveraged to solve your immediate financial problems and prevent you from making bad decisions that may cause you a lot of problems somewhere in the future. These days, we are living in a world that leaves us with very little time to properly assess our personal finances or engage in any kind of long-term financial planning. Properly leveraging personal loans to deal with immediate expenses is an excellent way to start solving these issues.

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