QandAs: Loans

Where can I get a personal loan?

Answer:

If you’re in need of some quick cash to tide

you over during a rough spot, a personal loan is the way to go. You borrow a small sum of money for a short time and you take care of a few important financial matters such as paying medical expenses, covering the cost of a wedding, making some major repairs on your car, doing some home improvement projects or even consolidation some debt.

Typically, since you are borrowing a smaller amount of money than you would for a mortgage or home equity loan, you have more options for acquiring your personal loan. You can get one at banks, credit unions, financial lenders, and online lending sites.

The first choice I would suggest to you is your personal credit union or bank. If you already have a relationship with the lender, it makes it that much easier to get approval for your personal loan. If you don’t have a credit union or bank that you use regularly, you can visit any local bank and put in an application for a small personal loan.

If you get a secured loan, you will need to put up some collateral as security for the loan. However, if your credit history is good enough and the loan is small enough, you can get an unsecured personal loan. An unsecured loan means that you don’t need to put up any type of property as collateral.

Any financial lender in the phone book is also an option for you. Try to pick one that you have actually heard good things about. Failing that, you can select one that you haven’t heard anything bad about.

Additionally, you can visit any number of websites that advertise personal loans. If you do decide to surf the net in search of a personal loan, follow some safeguards to protect your personal information. When you visit the website, look for the small icon of a lock in the lower right hand corner of the screen. This indicates that the website is legitimate. Moreover, you can always do an engine search on the website that you are considering to check its validity.

A few websites featuring personal loans (as well as the lock icon) include the following:
https://www.eloan.com/s/show/personalloans?context=personalloans

If you would like to search for a comparison among bank loans that are available, you can look in the financial section of your local newspaper, or you can go to any of the following links and search for available personal loan information at:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/loan/loan.aspx

https://www.wellsfargo.com/personal_credit/

https://www.credit.com/r/ploan_only_ccom_link

The majority of the online websites do not charge you a fee to submit an application for a personal loan. Moreover, when you apply online, you typically receive a response in a very short time. A good tip to follow, however, is never to borrow more than you need, because you will be paying it back.