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CML Finance

Loans and finance guide.

From the blog

How do I Choose the Best Payday Lender?

Choosing the right lender for you is really important. You need to think about what features you would like to see in a good lender and then find one that fits that. When you have a payday loan the same should apply. It can be trickier though as often when we need a payday loan we need the money quickly and so we do not take the time to research. If we are panicking as well, we may have trouble thinking clearly, which again is not surprising and so may make poor judgements and choices. Therefore, it is wise to try to sit down calmly and think about what you want form a lender and see whether you can find one that matches your criteria.

Reputation
Many of us will feel that the reputation of the lender is really important. We will want to feel that they will treat us well and respond to any problems we have in a helpful and fair manner. Finding out what lenders are like can be tricky though but you can try a few things –

  • Ask people you know who they have used and if they would recommend them
  • Look online at reviews
  • Look at the websites of the lenders and judge for yourself

It can be tempting to think that we should choose a company that we have heard of. However, it may just be that we know the name from advertisements which is not judge of their reputation just means they have the money available to advertise. Also, we may have heard bad things about them but cannot remember them so the name may have stuck but not the reason why. Therefore, only go with information you are sure of or else you could be choosing a lender without really having the right information to judge them on.

Customer service
How a company treats their customers is really important. You want to be confident that if you get in touch with them, they will respond quickly, politely and be helpful. Not all companies seem to be bale to do this and if you owe money to a company you want to be able to talk to them about any problems you have and know that they will be happy to help. To find out what their customer service is like, you might be able to see comments when you look at reviews or ask people who have used them what they thought. However, the best way is to get in touch with them yourself. Think about how you would normally contact them, perhaps by telephone, online message, email or whatever and use that method to get in touch and ask them a few questions. Then see what sort of response you get and you will be able to get a feel of how good they are and whether you feel that they would be right for you.

Products
Obviously you will also need to choose a lender that offers a product that you want. You will be looking for a payday loan, but there may be certain specific criteria that you have with regards to it. You will probably have a certain sum of money that you need to borrow, for example. You might need a certain amount of time before you can repay it. You may need it within a few hours. There are many possibilities that may apply to you and you need to make sure that the loan you pick will fit them. Payday lenders tend to offer just the one product, unlike other lenders who have a whole series of different ones. This makes it easier for you to pick between them as if you do not like the product they are offering then you will need to look elsewhere. If you are not sure what you actually want then look at the key features of a few payday loans and compare them. Then you will see whether some offer something that seems better than another and it will help you to identify what it is you like about one over the other so that you can compare them.

Conclusion
So you can see that there are quite a few things that you should consider when you are picking a lender. There may be more things that apply to you personally as we all have different things which are important to us. Although it seems like you will have a lot to do, it should not take too long to do some research and make sure that you are picking the right one. It is easy to pick the first that you come across but you could regret this later, so make sure that you at least spend some time comparing lenders so that you can see what differences there are and make a more informed decision when you are choosing the one that you want to go with.

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Will Brexit Uncertainty Effect the Availability of Personal Loans?

There is a lot of speculation about what might happen when the UK leaves the EU and maybe even whether it will happen at all. While everything is uncertain it is best to make plans so that you are prepared for whatever might happen. One thing that you may feel concerned about is whether personal loans may be harder to get due to all of the uncertainty. It is good to give it some thought and prepare for the worst just in case.

Why would uncertainty effect loans?
It is difficult to predict the future and to know exactly what might happen even if we have seen a situation happen before. In this situation it has not happened before and so it is even more difficult to predict. However, we can apply some common sense and make a few guesses.

When there is uncertainty in a market or economy people do not want to invest in it. They worry about what might happen to their money if they do and so tend to put it elsewhere. This may also apply to consumers who may feel that they should save their money rather than spend it so that they have some in reserve just in case they use it. People may also decide that they would rather not borrow money for larger purchases, perhaps for home restoration projects, mortgages or things like this because they want to wait and see what will happen first.

This can lead to two possible scenarios. If banks have more savings in them, then they will be able to lend more money as they effectively lend out the money that people pay in to savings accounts. If people are taking less loans though they may make loans dearer as they need more profit but they could make them cheaper to try encourage people to take them out. There is also the fact that the lenders may be uncertain about what might happen and may decide not to lend so much themselves just case people will not be able to make their repayments.

So uncertainty could have all sorts of effects on lending and it is hard to predict what those might be. It will depend on the thoughts of the individual lender and how they respond to changes in the market.

What is likely to happen?
It is very hard to predict what is likely to happen. It could be that there is a very short effect and then things will just carry on as normal. This could just last a few hours, few days or few weeks and would not have much of an impact. However, there could be a long-term effect which lasts years and this could have more of an influence of the availability of loans.

One thing we can be pretty sure of is that there will still be lenders and they will still want to lend money so that they can profit. So loans are unlikely to disappear altogether. The types of loans are not that likely to change either but the biggest effect is likely to be that the price of them will change. Whether that will be a rise or fall is hard to say at this point though.

What shall I do to prepare?

It is hard to prepare for something unpredictable. However, if you ensure that your finances are in order then you will be in the best position to tackle anything that comes. Therefore, make sure that you are budgeting properly so that you can easily afford all of your bills. It could be wise to put some money into a savings account just in case prices rise or your income drops. Try to have a plan for how you might manage if there are no personal loans available and you do need one. Perhaps check your credit record is correct and see if there is anything you can do to improve it so that you have more options with regards to potential borrowing. See if you can repay some of your debts so that it is easier for to manage financially. If you have no debt then try to put some money away as savings so you have some money to fall back on should you need it. I would also think about things that I could do to reduce my spending if necessary. I would not necessarily do it right away. There must be things you buy that you could go without. Perhaps make a list and then you can work through it if you need to and reduce what you are spending. If you think you could not cut down anymore then come up with some ways you could make extra money. Perhaps do both and then you will have something to work on if the situation does change and you find that you are struggling financially.

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