Budget Blogger

Is a Title Loan the Right Choice?

Title loans can be a great option.  Here are a few reasons you might want to give an Alabama Title Loan company a chance:

Get Your Cash Fast:  Best benefit of a title loans?  The ease and speed of the entire process.  The online form usually  takes less than two minutes and a loan agency representative will contact you right away. You’ve got access to title loan companies in Alabama, Arizona, California, Delaware or anywhere else in the country, right at your fingertips. The rep will let you know what ownership documents you’ll need and if everything checks out, approve your loan. Or just walk into a title loan company office on your own and walk out with a loan in 30 minutes or less.

No Questions: A company like Georgia Title Loans prides itself on no-questions-asked cash. A lender may ask why you need money, but as long as it’s  legal, your reason for needing a title loan doesn’t influence the lender’s loan-approval decision. 

Flexible Payback Options: Lenders understand how uncertain the economy is today.  They’ll work with you to determine the best repayment plan to meet your needs.

“This site is affiliated with and may have received compensation, either directly or indirectly, from one or more of the lenders referenced herein

Bank of America recently announced plans to increase their overdraft fees. When the price change goes into effect, their $39 overdraft fee will be the highest overdraft fee charged by a major bank.

The way these fees are “earned” is pretty sneaky. Most of the time customers are surprised to learn about their overdraft fees because they think if they use their debit card and the purchase goes through, they have money in their account.

That’s how a $5 breakfast at Panera Bread can turn into paying $44 for a bagel and coffee. The bank approves your purchase, then hits you up for the $39 fee. Even if you make a deposit before the end of the day, you still owe the fee for the priviledge of the $5 “loan.”

A typical California payday loan costs less; usually $15 for every $100 borrowed. When you borrow money from a payday or title lender, the fees and charges are clear, and displayed on your loan contract. Lenders aren’t trying to earn their fees by sneaking extra charges onto your bill. Expensive? Yes, but so is the overdraft fee and with payday and title loans there are no surprises.

With California Payday Loans or Title Loans of California you pay for the convenience of getting cash quickly, usually within 15 minutes of applying, and knowing that your past credit history won’t prevent you from borrowing money. Who wants to spend $44 at Panera anyway?

I recently reconnected with a college friend through Facebook.  I’m not a big advocate of the site, and have visited my profile twice in the past year.  But reminiscing with this particular friend was a very welcome blast from the past, especially when she mentioned our midnight stalking of an ex.  We thought he wouldn’t recognize us in my friend’s car because we were wearing paper bags over our heads and had holes cut out for our eyes.  Too much beer, I guess.

After we hung up, I started thinking about how this friend used both payday loans and title loans during our “getting started” years.  She lives out west and used Montana Title Loans when she wanted to move into her own apartment but couldn’t come up with the security deposit.

Once the title loan was paid off, there were several times she used Montana Payday Loans to hold her over from paycheck to paycheck during her first year of employment.  She could always come up with the money to repay the payday loan, but her job only distributed paychecks once each month.     

This friend is probably the best example I know of someone using payday and title loans the right way.  She wasn’t buying designer purses or splurging on things she couldn’t afford.  She was just a young girl trying to make it on her own at a job that barely paid minimum wage. 

If you live out west, getting a title or payday loan in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, or South Dakota has never been easier.  Click on the links or call them on the phone and you are just minutes away from cash in your hand.

When I read that auto dealers are using remote locaters to disable vehicles when owners miss payments, it made me feel old — very old.  Back in the 80s, when I worked in a bank collections department, we used skip tracers  to find delinquent loan customers and hopefully our cars.  A skip tracing position was the coveted job in our department.  Today they’d probably be out of a job. 

There’s a lot of debate going back and forth about the Big Brother aspect of these devices, but what seems to be the same no matter what decade you’re talking about is that if you borrow money you should pay it back.

Whether you use Title Loans of New Mexico, John Smith Auto Dealers, or the Bank of Mom and Dad a loan is just that -someone giving you money with the expectation that at some point they’ll get their money back. 

Carolina Title Loans is in the business to make money. You’ll pay finance charges based on the length and amount of your pink slip loan.  Mom and Dad might not charge interest, but they’ll have the leverage to expect you to at least try to get a job, get out of bed before noon, and follow their rules until the money is repaid.

Title loans and payday loans give consumers options and choices where there doesn’t seem to be any.  Even dealers installing tracking devices can make sense if it gives someone the chance to drive a car when the dealer won’t take a chance on them any other way.  What’s important no matter where you find emergency cash is that you have a plan to repay the money. 

I just spent the last hour on the phone trying to cancel a recurring charge to my credit card.  After talking to six – yes six- different people the best I could do was receive a one month credit and the “promise” to cancel my membership.  All this because I thought I was using the government’s free annual credit report service.  

The credit reporting club was bad enough, but when I called my credit card company it was even worse.  I thought using a credit card provided an easy way to reverse unauthorized charges.  I thought wrong.  I haven’t disputed a charge in more than 20 years, but lately I’ve been paying closer attention to my statements instead of skimming over the $10 or $20 charges.  By the time I hung up the phone I was exhausted from trying to understand their complicated dispute process.  Turns out most of the work; letter writing, phone calls, arguing with service reps, is up to me. 

When you use a quality title loan company listed below, this won’t happen to you.  Working with a company dedicated to providing quality customer service is worth its weight in gold.  Really.  Once you choose one of these fast-cash title loan companies, you know you’ll receive the best service in the industry. 

Alabama Title Loans
Arizona Title Loans
California Title Loans
Delaware Title Loans
Georgia Title Loans
Idaho Title Loans
Illinios Title Loans
Louisiana Title Loans
Montana Title Loans
Missouri Title Loans
Nevada Title Loans
New Mexico Title Loans
South Carolina Title Loans
South Dakota Title Loans
Tennessee Title Loans
Texas Title Loans
Utah Title Loans
Virginia Title Loans
Wisconson Title Loans

My nine-year-old has been waiting for the release of the new Nintendo DSi since he placed his $25 deposit with Gamestop last month.  Last night, an hour before the store closed, he picked up the DS.  We waited until the last minute because I refused to give him any cash or use my credit card to help him make the purchase.

He called the store and discovered they were offering $30 and $20 bonuses on trade-ins of old DS models.  He scrounged around the house for loose change and gathered up every single game he could find to trade in.  I let him sweat it out. It wasn’t easy finding all the old games, chargers, and other exchangeable electronic equipment scattered around the house – like finding a needle in a haystack.

While his DS was being rung up, I thought this must be how loan customers feel when signing documents or applying for credit – confused.  Once the clerk started talking about half rebates, discount cards, and protection plans; he lost me.  Luckily my son had enough trade-ins and cash to buy the DS, but my brain felt like it had just been tossed around in a salad spinner. 

When I looked at the receipt and the company’s promotional advertisements to sort through our transaction, things just got worse.  I put the receipt away and sat back to watch my son enjoy his new DS.  I promised myself I’d check the receipt once I had some peace and quiet in the house.

Few title loan companies or payday loan companies can match the great service you’ll get at any of these locations Alabama Title Loans, Arizona Title Loans ,California Title Loans ,Delaware Title Loans , Georgia Title Loans, Idaho Title Loans ,Illinios Title Loans , Louisiana Title Loans , Montana Title Loans ,Missouri Title Loans , Nevada Title Loans ,New Mexico Title Loans ,South Carolina Title Loans ,South Dakota Title Loans, Tennessee Title Loans , Texas Title Loans ,Utah Title Loans ,Virginia Title Loans ,Wisconson Title Loans . 

Payments, repayment schedules, fees and yes – even the dreaded annual percentage rate — are clearly spelled out for your review. 

Even if most proponents of pink slip and payday advance loans disagree with the regulations that make it mandatory for calculating the apr based on a a yearly loan, the rate is right there, and customer service reps are happy to explain how it’s calculated.  Maybe Gamestop needs a little tweak to their promotional programs.

Seems like we’re all trying to save some money. Here’s an excerpt from a Business Week article published last month.

• Trading down is becoming chic. The word “frugalista” has crept into the lexicon. McDonald’s (MCD) McCafé sales are up, while Starbuck’s (SBUX) are down. Subaru and Hyundai are hotter brands than BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The recession, flirting with becoming a full-on Depression, is reshaping consumer buying habits, as well as the product plans of companies ranging from Ford (F) to Mercedes-Benz, Burberry (BBRYF), and Coach (COH).
• But in the world of automobiles, consumers still find it hard to trade down from luxury brands, which after all represent status that was attained through financial success. “Many people equate the kind of car they can afford to buy with their station in life,” says independent marketing consultant Dennis Keene. “They wear vehicles like wardrobes…for many they are what they drive—as superficial as that sounds.”

Con artists are everywhere and they’re looking for their next victim.  Posing as government workers, theives are contacting consumers by phone and e-mail saying they have money for you — they just need your bank account information.

Don’t fall for their tactics. The U.S. economic stimulus package doesn’t include financial assitance to individuals, and even if it did, government employees wouldn’t be soliciting your personal and bank information by phone or email.

The title loan and payday loan companies I’ve mentioned on this blog all have secure sites established to protect your personal information and privacy.   They’re different then most alternative lenders who obtain your loan request information then sell your loan application to the company willing to pay the largest finders fee.  

When you choose a company like Title Loans of Arizona or Title loans of California you are dealing directly with the lender.  There’s no middle man, so less chance that your personal information can fall into the hands of a less-than-reputable lender.

To find a title loan or payday loan company close to your home click here for immediate help.

These days just the sight of our mailman makes me cringe.  Don’t get me wrong –He’s a great guy, but sometimes the news in the mailbox isn’t as appealing. 

There are months when I know I’ve overspent on my credit or mailed a check before payday, hoping my paycheck would hit the bank before the check did. 

Just like everyone else I’ve been trying to figure out a ”Plan B” for financial emergencies, but it hasn’t been easy.  10 years ago you could walk into just about any bank and walk out with a check in hand.  Same thing if you walked in to ask for an extension on your loan payment.  Lenders were more than happy to increase credit limits and grant interest only loan extensions to help customers going through a rough patch. 

It’s different today.  Filling out a loan application feels more like a dog begging for scraps at the dinner table than an adult applying for credit.  One place where your credit application will be given serious consideration without feeling like begging for a handout is Title Loans of New Mexico.

  They have a great Internet site to help you get started, and a quick phone call or email is all it takes to get the ball rolling.  

No questions about your credit history — just fast cash in exchange for the pink slip to your car.   

If you’ve read a news story about title loans or payday loans, you might have wondered how customers got into situations where their small title loan turned into a big and very expensive transaction. 

A lot of the confusion has to do with how payments are applied.  Just as an example, let’s use Title Loans of Georgia.  If you took out a title loan for $1,500,  Your interest rate would be 25%.   Your first three monthly payments of approximately $380 are applied towards your interest charges.  After that you begin paying down the amount you borrowed and the interest rate is cut in half.  You can take as long as you want to repay the loan, but you are required to make your minimum monthly payments.   

Is it an expensive loan and do the charges add up?  Absolutely – you’re paying for the convenience of a quick turn around time and the fact that any blemishes on your credit history aren’t held against you when your application is being processed.  That’s not something that’s easy to find these days when banks are routinely cutting credit limits and making their lending guidelines so stringent only customers with stellar credit seem to get approved.

So, yes you’ll pay more than you would at a traditional bank. But there is a way to decrease the total amount of interest you end up paying – make more than your minimum payment for the first three payments.  By doing this you’re paying down the amount of money you actually borrowed from the Georgia title loan company instead of just the finance charges.  You’ll have a smaller balance remaining after you make your initial payments.  How much money you pay in interest after that is up to you.  Just like with a credit card — making minimum payments each month will be more expensive than if you can pay the minimum plus an extra amount to decrease the amount you borrowed.  

Things don’t always turn out the way you plan, and sometimes life throws you a curve ball leaving your finances in shambles.  When you’re in the middle of a financial crisis, title loan companies may be your only option.  Once the dust has settled you may even find that title loans turn out to be a less expensive alternative to late charges, and overdraft fees.  Either way it’s nice to know there’s a place to turn for help.