Friday, December 12, 2008

Personal Signature Loans and The Art of Borrowing

By Mark Lundersenn

Many of the problems in the world financial system right now are due to the widespread misuse of credit. It all really comes down to the Art of Borrowing, and as a nation (and world) we've been going about it all the wrong way. We're borrowing way too much relative to our income; we're saving less than 0% of our earnings, and we're headed down the path to financial destruction.

First of all, you have hundreds of thousands of Americans who bought homes they had no business buying, and no realistic ability to repay the loans. It's amazing to me that as a people we'd blame a Presidential Administration for what we did. It's disappointing that the savvy members of the community will pay for the mistakes of the careless in the form of expensive bailout plans paid for with tax dollars.

We have to do better next time, and doing better means using credit intelligently. Most of the time borrowing wisely means not borrowing at all, including avoiding personal signature loans and other quick cash borrowing tools. Stay away from them no matter what - even if it means taking a part time job to get by in the meantime.

Why not? Well, because these types of loans nearly always carry terrible interest rates and bad terms. If you choose to borrow cash in this way you can end up paying in excess of 100% interest as well as hundreds of dollars in fees. How could that ever be a smart move?

That being said, while signature personal loans are generally an awful financial move, there may be times where you just can't avoid using them. You might experience sudden unemployment when your boss fires you for no apparent reason at all.

Sure that would be completely unfair, and you'd probably even be justified in taking legal action against him, but it would be of no use. And besides - you're unemployed now - you don't have any money to pay attorneys do you?

So with no job, and the bills stacking up, and no family or friends to lend you some money to get you buy, the only choice might be to go to your bank and ask for a signature loan. You see, your mortgage lender isn't going to cut you a break just because your boss unfairly terminated you.

Here's my advice: borrow the absolute minimum you need to get by until you and secure a new job and your next paycheck. And take any job you can get - in this economy we can't really afford to get greedy or picky when it comes to making a few bucks. For the next few years it's in all of our best interest to do whatever is (legally and ethically) necessary to feed our families and keep our bills paid. - 16003

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