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Most people know that they can refinance their house, but fewer know that it’s possible to refinance a car loan, too! It’s become extremely popular in recent years. And it might seem like a silly idea, since most car loan terms are short–typically three to five years. However, it can be a good idea, since:

IT MAY LOWER YOUR INTEREST RATE

If you got your car loan when rates were high, you may be able to get a lower rate now. Or perhaps, when you first obtained your car loan, your credit was less-than-perfect. If you’ve managed to improve your credit score over the past year or so, you may now qualify for the lower rate. And a lower interest rate means less cost to you over time. Even dropping your rate by 1-2% can mean significant savings over the life of your loan.

IT’S USUALLY CHEAP

Many car loan lenders that will refinance your loan don’t charge any fees. That means no application fees, no fees for paying off your first loan early, and no other extra charges. So in many cases, refinancing your car loan won’t cost you anything at all! And if you refinance for a lower rate, that’s like saving money for free.

IT’S EASY TO OBTAIN

Although you will have to go through a credit check, there are lots of lenders out there who will help bad credit borrowers refinance a car loan. And many of these lenders are available online, which Read more…

If you have student loans, you might want to think about consolidating them! Student loan consolidators will lump all your student loans into one single loan, and give you a low fixed rate. And it’s a good idea to do it now, because:

YOU MIGHT GET A LOWER RATE

Over recent years, rates have been extremely low. Every year, student loan rates change on July 1. This year on that date, the rates will rise. In fact, the most common type of student loan rate will rise from 5.3% to 7.14%. But if you consolidate your loans, you lock-in the rate for life, so it will always be that low 5.3% no matter how long you hold the loan! By choosing to consolidate your loans now, you’re guaranteed to have a low rate for the life of the loan.

YOU MIGHT GET AN EVEN LOWER RATE

These days, many student loan companies are offering perks for special customers. For example, you may get a lower rate if you choose to have your payments electronically debited from your checking account each month. And you may also get a lower rate after you make regular, on-time payments for a certain period of time, such as one year or six months. By taking advantage of these deals when you consolidate your loans, you could get your student loan interest rate lowered another 0.5% or so!

YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE FEWER PAYMENTS

If you borrowed multiple student loans–say, for different years of school–chances are you’re paying multiple bills each month. Read more…

When interest rates on student loans rise, many college students begin to consider student loan consolidation. There are both benefits and disadvantages to student loan consolidation. This article explains the pros and cons of consolidating student loans.

Pros

Consolidating your student loans locks you in at the current interest rate. This means that, if interest rates rise, you will continue to be responsible only for your original fixed interest rate. Unconsolidated student loans have variable interest rates that fluctuate from year to year.

Consolidation loans generally have longer repayment periods. Unconsolidated student loans have a maximum repayment period of 10 years. Consolidation loans may have repayment periods up to 30 years. This means that monthly payments may be lower on consolidated loans.

Cons

On unconsolidated student loans, the government pays the interest on your loans for six months after you graduate. This means that you wouldn?t be responsible for a payment during this time. However, consolidating your student loans forfeits this grace period. You will be responsible for payments on your loans immediately after graduation.

If you consolidate, you are locked Read more…

While most college students were on winter breaks, the US Senate was debating over a bill which included massive student loan cuts. On December 21, 2005 in a 51-50 vote the US Senate passed a bill which included $12 billion in student loan cuts from the federal budget. Vice President Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote, while five Republicans sided with the Democrats who unanimously opposed the bill.

A second blow was wielded this week when the House passed a bill also in favor of the student loan cuts. While 13 moderate Republicans joined House Democrats in a no vote, not enough opposition was gained and the bill passed 216 to 214.

The drastic measure eliminates $2.2 billion in critical funds used to administer the federal student loan programs. Additional changes included a new 1% insurance fee that student borrowers must pay to guarantee agencies and raising the interest rate cap for parents who take out federal education loans for their children from 7.9 percent to 8.5 percent.

The bill outlines a total of $39 billion in budget cuts which besides the student loan cuts, severely reduces Medicaid and Medicare programs for Read more…

People will spend months or even years planning to buy a car. They will work hard to build good credit. They will search for just the right make and model. They will scope out the various dealers and sales staff sometimes even comparing service departments too. Then they will sign on the dotted line for the first loan the sales person offers.

What is wrong with this picture?

It is important to remember that if you have good credit then you are a dream customer to most lenders. Even if your credit is not perfect you are still an attractive client for many lenders.

Repeat this mantra whenever a lender acts as if they are doing you a favor by lending you money: I am going to give them a lot of money. Yes, you are. They can negotiate a sweet deal (sweet for them) and then turn around and sell that loan within the year and make a quick profit. Even if they don’t sell your loan they will make money off you for the next three to six years as you pay interest on your original loan. They are not giving you anything. This is a business deal and the lender stands to make a lot of money so you need to protect yourself to get the best deal you can.

While most lenders tend to make you think you should be grateful to them for taking this huge risk on you, it really is the other way around. A lender can’t lose. If you honor the deal they will make a lot of money and if you don’t honor the deal then they simply take your car back and keep the interest you paid in the meantime!

However there is an even bigger fallacy that lenders like to perpetuate. They don’t want you to know how desperate they are for your business. Look around and you will realize the truth of this. Check out the television, radio, and print ads that abound and you will see that lenders are getting pretty competitive.

That is why you simply must shop around to find the best car loan available for you. In the end you could save yourself hundreds of dollars. Here are five ways to help you find the best deal:

~ Shop around – Get quotes from various lenders. Look at local and national lenders and don’t overlook the internet.

~ Compare terms – Interest rates vary from lender to lender but lenders offer different interest rates depending on the terms Read more…

Too lazy to investigate this properly? Then this one is for you.

Loan consolidation is the act of combining multiple loan plans into one. That is, instead of sending cheques to several lenders every single month, you will pay just to one entity. It’s a no-brainer to see that this is less work than several. But as you were always told, there is no such thing as a ”free lunch”.

Other than simplifying this rather annoying process, the interest rate on your single consolidated loan may be even lower than the rates you are paying now. Simply put, you might even be saving yourself money. With some plans, it is even possible to adjust the amount of money paid back by your monthly pay; pay less when studying, pay more once you find a good job.

Get it straight, everybody wants a cut from your cheque. It is in everybody’s interest to get your loans transferred to them or consolidated by their firm. Your current loan provider might offer the best deal of the lot, so do not neglect to investigate that option. If you have more than one Federal Loan, it is highly advisable to check out the Federal Direct Consolidation Loans, as they offer a long grace period (time before repayments begin), and repayment plans for up to 30 Read more…

Most people have taken out plenty of loans and other forms of credit, from various sources over the years. These could include student loans, credit cards, store cards, a bank overdraft, car loan, goods bought on a buy now pay later basis. All of these sources of credit will have different terms depending on who you borrowed from and how much. One important factor with all these loans is that they will all have different rates.

Rates and APR

The rate you repay your loans at is vitally important. Many people underestimate the influence the APR will have on how much they repay for a loan; the difference can be astounding. The bottom line is that you want your interest rates to be as low as possible.

If you have many different loans and they are all at different rates, and some of the rates are very high, you may consider debt consolidation. This is taking out a new loan that will provide you with enough cash to pay back all your other loans. Then the only loan you have to worry about is the new debt consolidation loan. The main advantage of this is that you may be able to borrow the consolidating loan at an interest rate substantially lower than what you?re paying for your other loans. This will mean that all your monthly payments will be replaced by one reduced payment, thus saving you thousands.

Lift Those Weights!

Another advantage of debt consolidation is the stress it can take off your shoulders. It is sometimes very difficult to keep track of all your various payments, when they?re due, how much they?ll be and whether or not you?ll Read more…

The internet is teeming with lenders who are vying for your business. It seems like everyone wants to loan you money. You are truly in the driver?s seat by going online for your mortgage, refinance, and consolidation needs. But how do you select a lender? How do you choose the right institution? How do you know who to trust?

In this brief article, we will cover the 6 simple, practical, and essential key points that we feel you should evaluate, when exploring online lenders: Feel free to print this out, and use it as a free guide, while pointing and clicking your way to success:

1. Privacy

2. Design

3. Popularity and Reputation

4. The Short Form

5. Communication

6. Points, Fees, Terms and Rates

1. Privacy:

In the modern world of ecommerce, it is essential that all respectable businesses honor your right to privacy:

a) Check for a posted PRIVACY POLICY, prominently displayed on the homepage of your prospective lenders site. Read it. Does it make sense to you? Does it address how they will use your email address, your name, and your private information?

b) Do they ask for things that may seem unreasonable at this stage of the game? Be wary of requests for credit card numbers, social security numbers, and similar information that may not be appropriate early on, for example, when you are filling out the initial, short form. Naturally, your lender will need that information down the road, but certainly not right out of the gate, when initiating the first steps towards a relationship with you.

c) Is the lender a member of a posted, third party, privacy program? For example, TRUSTe is one such independent company that will designate a member site. You can look for their emblem, and similar third-party companies. This is not a requirement for securing a good privacy policy; however, it is worth noting.

2. Design:

The storefront of the online world, is the website. Therefore, it is important that you examine the sites design, and evaluate it, much the same way that you evaluate an office or store as you walk in the front door. Let me give you a couple things to consider:

a) Is it a fast-loading site, or are you waiting forever?

b) Is it straightforward or elusive? Can you glean important, direct information from the homepage, or does the site appear to coax you in deeper?

c) Are you inundated with pop-ups, pop-unders, and other in-your-face ads, or does the site seem helpful?

Remember, how the lender presents themselves online, is a reflection of their business philosophy, and it tells you a lot about what kind of lender they may be, after you sign on the bottom line.

3. Popularity and Reputation

I?m sure you learned in high-school, that popularity and reputation aren?t everything. However, just like in the real world, it is important to gather information on these two key points, and use them as a gauge.

a) By typing your lenders URL into http://www.alexa.com, you will be able to ascertain how popular your lenders site is, because Alexa will tell you how much visitor traffic the site gets. This isn?t a science, and popularity isn?t everything. For example, an extremely popular website could treat you like a number, and a relatively new lender or smaller institution, might not be frequently visited, but still be a perfectly viable choice. So, review popularity alongside rock-solid common sense.

b) Say, why not check out your prospective lenders reputation, by going to the online Better Business Bureau, http://bbbonline.com and checking the Reliability Report? This report will provide you with corporate information (such as name, address, phone number), BBB membership information, whether or not the lender is a participant of the ?BBB Online? program, along with a complaint history, and each complaints final resolution.

c) These aren?t the only methods for gauging popularity and reputation, of course. You can talk to people, go to chatrooms, conduct search-engine research, etc. Again, popularity and reputation aren?t everything, but keep them in mind while exploring lenders, both online and in the real world of course.

4. The Short Form

The Short form is a term used to describe the basic application that you initially fill out, when seeking a loan from a lender or institution.

a) Is it short indeed? Does it ask you for basic information, relevant information, and is it presented in a simple and concise fashion, perhaps no longer then 1 to 2 pages?

b) Is the short form organized and appropriate? Does it make sense, is it simple to fill out, and is it easy to understand, and appropriate for an initial application?

c) Consider this form Read more…

Make the right choice on grace periods, length of loans and consolidation.

Let?s see here, you just graduated college and got hired at your first job. It is now a month before holidays and (two, three or four) different loan companies send you statements in the mail informing you that you have to start paying on your student loans next month. You must be thinking, it is the holiday season and I have to buy gifts and pay my bills. How am I going to afford to start paying off my student loans? Here is how.

Grace Periods

Many recent college graduates choose the option to defer their loans for six months. That is how long the grace period is for student loans. It may be a good idea to take advantage of this option if it took you a while to find a job or if you are starting out on a low salary. Most entry-level positions do not offer the highest salaries. However, if you do have a decent salary job or if your loan is not tremendously high, it may be smart to start paying right away because the faster you can pay off your student loan, the easier it would be for you to buy a house and save money for the future. Remember, you will have to eventually have to pay back your student loan, so the longer you prolong paying, the more time it will take you to pay it off and the more it will cost you in added interest charges.

Length of Loans

Student loan repayments are usually scheduled over ten years. Lenders can have the option to have floating interest rates on loans, but cannot exceed 8.25 percent due to Federal Government laws. So obviously, the shorter the length of the loan; Read more…

Regardless of the level of debt you find yourself in, you can start today to formulate a plan to get out of debt. The unvarnished truth is, debt costs! If you are paying interest on credit cards, a car payment, and a house payment, then you would be amazed how much better off you would be if you were out of debt. It may look like you have a mountain to move, but if you take it one step at a time – and exercise some financial restraint – you should be able to get out of debt.

A good place to start is to find out exactly how much you owe and how big your payments are. That may sound unnecessary, but the fact is that many of us lose track of financial matters. Be sure you don’t forget a credit card, a medical payment, or any other monthly payment, as you make a list of all your bills.

Now figure out how much money you have coming in. Hopefully it is more than the total of the minimum payments on all your debts and other bills! If not, you need to find a better job or get some more income somehow. Assuming you have enough income but have simply gotten out of control, the next step is to figure out which of your debts has the highest interest rate.

As you make your monthly payments, be sure to add as much extra as possible to the debt with the highest interest. Pay the minimum on the rest. By adding extra money to your payment, you will be paying off the principal faster, which will save that extra interest when that debt is paid off. Keep adding what you can. When that debt is out of the way, start adding extra to the next highest interest payment.

You can reduce your credit card debt by applying for a no interest card and making a balance transfer from your highest interest card. Keep track of the interest on each card and pay off the high interest cards Read more…