Short Term Personal Loans
Choosing Your Lender for Short Term Personal Loans

Millions of American face sudden cash flow emergencies requiring instant cash to tide them over. Lenders are fully aware of this and you see them thriving online with promotions that offer on-hour and no-fax loan processing. It has been a great facility for many as a quick and convenient way to get short-term fixes to a cash flow predicament.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon opens itself to people out to make money out of your misery so fly-by-night operators or scammers mix into the legitimate lenders that make it easy for them to victimize unwary borrowers.

Do Some Research

So which lender to choose? This may be difficult with all those online lenders promising the same fast short term personal loans right on the same day. But there are just a few things to consider and you can raise the red flag on many of these lenders so you can strike them out of your list.

They charge an Upfront Fee. This is a sure sign that it’s just a scam. No reputable lender will charge anything before approving your loan. It’s only when your loan is approved that the financing charges and whatever processing fees the lender charges gets deducted from your loan proceeds. There are no application fees or processing fees at the start and any lender that does charge them should be avoided at all cost.

Very low Interest Rates. If the low interest rates seem too good to be true, when comparing it to other lenders offering the same loan amount, it has to be a scam. Almost all lenders carry similar financing charges varying only in a few cents to a dollar. Be suspicious if there are offers with substantially lower financing costs than the usual $10 to $30 for ever $100 loan amount.

They ask the wrong questions. Lenders are curious to know if their borrowers can pay back the money they lend out. That means you can expect questions about your employer and not so much on your banking details. If the lender is only interested in your financial circumstance, SS number and bank account number without bothering about your employer, you can be sure they want to get your money. Raise the red flag right away. You can smell as scam right of the bat with questions like that.

Little or no Contact Information. All reputable and legit merchants offering short term personal loans online have complete information about their company and their contact details. If you chance upon a lender site that has little or no contact details, you can be sure they don’t want to be contacted by their customers. Information like phone and fax numbers as well as a physical address with ZIP code and email address are standard contact details for any legitimate business. You can also try contacting those sites that do and see if response is quick and there’s a real person behind the numbers. Otherwise, raise the red flag.

Loan Terms and Conditions. Look out for fine prints about the conditions on their short term personal loans. See if you spot strict provisions for payment. And most importantly, see that the APR (Annual percentage Rate) is prominently displayed on their website. This is a requirement of the Truth and in Lending Act and failure to do so is a violation of this law - payday loans. GP