5 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Personal Loan

April 6, 2021

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Personal loans are inherently... well, personal. No one understands your financial situation better than you do. The best way to find the right fit is to evaluate your needs and do your research first. Personal loans can come in all different shapes and sizes, and what’s best for someone else might not be what’s best for you. When you’re shopping for personal loan options, there are some variables that you may want to consider.

What is a Personal Loan?

1. Understanding What is a Personal Loan

The first question that needs to be answered is what is a personal loan? After all, it’s impossible to tell if it’s the right choice for you if you’re not exactly sure what it is. There are many different types of loans - personal, home equity, student, business, mortgage, auto, etc. The list of loan options goes on and on.

A personal loan is a type of credit that can be used to make a large one-time purchase, cover an unexpected expense, or consolidate credit cards. While they used to be considered a last resort option, personal loans are now considered the fastest growing form of consumer lending in the United States.

2. Structure of the Loan

If you search the internet for personal loans for bad credit, which many people do, you’ll see many different options pop up. Personal loans are some of the most common, and they come in two forms: secured or unsecured. Secured personal loans require personal property to be offered up as collateral. Unsecured personal loans, on the other hand, have less rigid requirements.

For example, Spotloans are short-term, unsecured installment loans. Unlike secured loans, no collateral is necessary. For those who are at least 18 years old, all you need to qualify for a Spotloan is a job or another regular income source, a checking or savings account, and a valid email and phone number. This flexibility is one reason why Spotloans are often used as emergency loans.

3. Length of the Loan

Some personal loans, like payday loans, have really short repayment periods. With a payday loan, full payment is due by your next paycheck, typically two weeks from the date that you received the funds. While this might work for some, it’s generally impractical to assume that two weeks gives any of us enough time to repay a loan.

Certain types of loans will also allow a longer repayment period but charge a prepayment penalty for paying off a loan early. With no hidden fees and no prepayment penalties, Spotloan doesn’t penalize you for getting your finances in order sooner than you expected. With our short-term installment loans, you can determine your own repayment period of up to ten full months.

4. The Application Process

Some loans require piles of paperwork, breakdowns of collateral, and a week or more to process each application. That doesn’t mean that they’re not viable options, but if you’re in a rush, they may not be the most ideal.

If you’re on a time crunch, there are other types of loans and companies that make it easier to get the funds you need fast. Spotloan is one of those options. Our quick and easy online application process usually takes about ten minutes to complete. Once you’ve been approved and accept the terms of your loan, you may even have your funds by the end of the same day.

5. Customer Support

At Spotloan, we understand how frustrating it can be to try to reach a company that either doesn’t answer or makes you work your way through multiple menu prompts. With traditional and non-traditional work hours, children, errands, and other obligations to contend with during the day, it can be difficult to slip in a phone call before 5:00 p.m.

If this sounds familiar to you, customer support options and hours are something that you should investigate while you’re shopping for loans. Some companies have extremely limited customer support hours, which can be problematic if you run into questions, concerns, or need to make a payment or update your account.

To combat this concern, the Spotloan customer support line is open six days per week. We’re available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. CT and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. CT. You can also reach a member of our support staff by emailing [email protected].

Budget

Spotloan is a brand owned by BlueChip Financial ("BlueChip"), a tribally-owned entity organized under and governed by the laws of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, a federally recognized Indian tribe (the "Tribe"). BlueChip is located on, operates within, and originates and services loans from the Tribe’s reservation. Though Spotloans are available to residents of certain states, consumers should know that BlueChip’s lending license is issued by the Tribe's Lending Commission, and not by the states in which its consumers may reside. Although the visitation is electronic, consumers are coming on to the Tribe’s reservation and subject to the Tribe’s jurisdiction to obtain a Spotloan.