When most of us need some extra cash for an upcoming project, the first thing we think about is heading down to the local bank and getting a loan. While this may work just fine in some cases, you may not always get the best rate of interest or the most favorable repayment terms. In order to do that, you may have to investigate more than one finance lender. Here are some tips to help you properly evaluate potential lenders.
One of the first things you want to look at is stability. Banks usually have the upper hand on this one, since most of them have been around for many years and can demonstrate their stability simply by their ongoing presence in the area. Finance companies may not be able to demonstrate their stability in quite the same manner. If you are thinking of going with a finance company, do some digging into their background. You will want to know when the company started, at least some basic ideas of how they do business and also are they stable in their operations. You can get a lot of this information from the company itself, but you can also check with records available at the local court house to determine if this finance company is one you should consider doing business with.
Along with stability, you want to learn all you can about the reputation of the company. Ideally, you want one that has a number of happy customers. A good finance lender knows how to be honest with a client and will do everything they can to keep the customer happy, within the boundaries of the operating guidelines of the institution. If possible, talk with people who have done business with them before. Get their perceptions on such matters as how well they explained the terms of the loan, how easy it is to reach someone if a question came up, and also if the lenders were personable and still professional. All these factors come into play if you want to deal with a lender who will have your best interests at heart.
Finally, trust your own gut feeling. If your interview with a finance lender leaves something to be desired, then you may want to keep looking for another option. Not everyone is a perfect match, so it may just be that you would work better with someone else. Don’t allow yourself to be swayed into something that your instincts tell you is not the right deal for you. Consider your hunches as well as the data you can collect about the finance lender from other sources. In the long run, you will be much happier with your choice.
By: James Woodley
Posts Tagged ‘Banks’
Evaluating a Finance Lender
February 1st, 2010Personal Finance Budgeting
December 23rd, 2009
Personal finance budgeting is on of the key ingredients to building wealth. It allows you to quickly pay down debt, save for college, regularly invest so you can enjoy an early retirement, and live a stress free. When you budget appropriately, you can comfortably go about your life knowing exactly how much money you have coming in and how much you can afford to spend.
Personal finance budgeting sounds like a boring thing to do, and most people do not like working with numbers, but it’s really easy. I spend maybe 10 minutes a week, sometimes every other week, to budget, and I do it the hard way. I simply created an Excel spreadsheet that is organized by categories: housing, cash withdrawals, food, reoccurring expenses, gas and other. Once a week, or every other week, I log in to my bank account and credit card accounts and copy my expenses in the appropriate column. The spreadsheet automatically totals my expenses up and subtracts that from my monthly budget. So all I have to do is plug in my expense and the spreadsheet tells me how much money I have left.
Like I said earlier, this is the hard way. There personal finance budgeting programs that will actually do all of this work for you, and some of them are free. You simply register for a new account online, enter your banking and credit card information, and the online program will automatically download all of your transactions, sort them into appropriate categories, and produce many visual graphs to help you understand where your money is going. These programs will send you email or text notifications to let you know when you are nearing your budget, and will even produce recommendations for you on how to reduce your expenses by suggesting where to save and showing you how you stack up to the average consumer.
The programs are very secure as well. Most use the same technology that online banks use, and they don’t actually allow you to make any financial transactions from within the system. That means that even if someone where to hack into your account, all they would see is what you are spending your money on. An account number cannot be found anywhere within these systems, so they are safe and secure.
Budgeting doesn’t have to be difficult at all. When you automate he process, budgeting doesn’t require you to crunch any numbers or balancing checkbooks. Thanks to online banking, it’s as simple as setting up an account and letting the software do the budgeting for you. Now you can get your personal finance on track and pay down your debt and accumulate more wealth with hardly any effort at all.
By: Ryan J. Taylor
