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Loans and more loans!
What follows are the best options that Strive4impact.com has found for low
cost loans and no hassle loans on the Internet. There are literally
hundreds of lenders online. The
only way you can be sure you're getting the
best loan for your individual needs is to go with a company that has already been
reviewed and passed the tests as a successful online and real-world lender.
Anyone can say that they write loans and give you no hassle about it, but
when it comes down to it, you want to
be
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sure that your money is going to come in when your lender
says that the loan will process
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treated as the high-quality customer that you are
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able to trust what the lender tells you about your loan
So, strive4impact.com has reviewed a variety of lenders
and recommends the following loan and mortgage companies.
To the best of my knowledge and experience, these are
the best online loans and lenders, divided into the categories of
mortgage loans,
auto loans,
payday loans, and
loans for credit cards or credit
debt. Select the loan that best suits your needs. Also, if
you're selecting a home equity loan or a mortgage loan, there is some
helpful information in the
article about mortgage loans lower on the page.
If you know of another lender or loan type that should be
added to this page, please contact me using the email link at the bottom of
the page.
5 tips to make cheap
mortgages pay
With loan rates at their lowest levels in 36 years, the
challenge is not just finding the best loan rate but finding the best loan terms.
Here's what you need to do.
By
Charley Blaine
May 2003
Thanks to
MSN
for this article.
Even as mortgage rates drop to their lowest level
in 36 years, it still pays to shop carefully.
National surveys put the average fixed, 30-year
mortgage loan rate at 6.22% last week, but many lenders are offering lower rates than
that, with nominal rates dropping below 6%.
But the nominal rate isn't the end of the rate
question.
The total cost of the loan -- the annual
percentage rate (APR) -- will be higher depending on how much you pay in
origination fees and other costs to get the loan. Calculating a loan's APR is
tricky, but the rough rule of thumb is that costs equal to 1% of the loan
amount add 0.25% to the stated loan rate. So, if your stated rate is, say,
6.45% and your lender charges you a 1% origination fee, your APR would be
about 6.7%.
A $150,000 30-year fixed-rate loan with a nominal
rate of 8.5% in May 2000 (and an APR closer to 8.8%) may now cost you as
little as 6.2% with the APR at just under 6.5%. This knocks the principal
and interest payment down from $1,153 to $919, a drop of $235 a month.
Rates for 15-year fixed-rate loans, a popular
option for refinancing, fell last week to 5.62%, according to a Bankrate.com
survey of lenders. Rates for 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages slipped to
4.57%.
A year ago, 30-year fixed-rate loan mortgages were at
6.92%, according to lender Freddie Mac. The last time rates were as low as
they today was in 1966.
Make sure refinancing is right for you
Homeowners flooded lenders in 2001 with
applications to refinance mortgages at the lower rates; refinancings
accounted for up to 75% of all loan business. Total loan volume hit a record
in 2001, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America says. The association,
which predicted in March home loans would fall 25 percent this year, now
expects the current surge will boost home loans and mortgages to about last year's record
of nearly $2.3 trillion.
The question now is how to get the best deal on a mortgage loan. Here
are some tips.
Do some serious shopping and pay attention to
loan costs and the APR.
The best mortgage deal balances the rate against the
costs. So this is where you want to pay attention to the APR. The lender
would prefer, actually, that you keep paying the loan at the higher rate, but it will
cost more to replace your business. So, the lender may be prepared to offer
less of a rate cut in exchange for lower loan costs. It's one thing to get a 6.1%
loan. But the lender may charge an origination fee equal to 2% of the loan
and related costs (title search, recording fees and the like), boosting your
APR to 6.6%. If you're borrowing $150,000, that's $3,000 in additional
costs, paid now. At 6.4%, it might not cost you anything except the filing
fees. When you do your shopping, find loan terms that are acceptable to you and
see if the lender will match them.
Make sure you know how long the lender will
guarantee the rate.
Lenders will typically lock in loan rates for 30
days, sometimes 60 days. (Some who are swamped with applications may go
further than that.) What you want, as our colleague Sharon Epperson at
CNBC-TV notes, is a "float down" option. That means that if you commit to
take a loan at 6.4% and rates fall to 6%, you can get the lower rate. Some
lenders will throw that in as an incentive to do business with them. Some
won't. Ask now and remember mortgage lenders are required to give you a
truth-in-lending statement three days after you apply for the loan. The
statement sets out the amount, nominal rate, APR, term, fees and projected
closing costs.
Play hardball if rates fall after you've locked
in.
Yes, it's stressful, but if rates drop a lot from when you started
the process, call the lender. Make him deal -- even if you've put up money
to start the mortgage process. The thousands you will save over the life of
the loan will easily offset giving up a few hundred dollars.
Calculate how long it will take to earn back
the costs of refinancing, if any.
On the $150,000 loan, let's say your
rate is dropping two percentage points or so and saving you $230 a month.
But the costs are 2% of the loan amount. It will take just under 13 months
to recover the costs of the new loan from the lower monthly payment. If your
loan rate is dropping just a percentage point, it may take closer to three
years to recover the costs. If that's the calculation you get, ask yourself
if it's worth the cost. A lot of consumer finance experts say it may not be.
It depends on how long you plan to live in the house and keep the loan. If you plan to live in
the house for, say, 35 years, maybe it's a good deal. If you expect to move
within two years, it's probably not. (For the record, families tend to move
about once every seven years -- more often when they're young and less often
as they age.)
Don't forget the taxes.
Many mortgage
borrowers forget that if they cut their interest costs by $2,000 a year, the
interest saved becomes taxable income. So, make sure you're planning for the
effect of the refinancing on your tax bill.
Back to home equity and mortgage
loan options
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