How to Choose the Best Lender

If you have decided to take out a loan and have worked out which type of loan will be the best for you, you will then need to think about which lender you should go with. You will have a lot of choice and it can be difficult to know which to choose. It can be tempting to look at the interest rate and just compare them on that. However, this is just part of what you should be looking at.

Cost

Although interest rates will give you some idea of the cost it is wise to look at this much more thoroughly. There will be other costs that you may or may not have to pay that you need to account for as well. Firstly, there may be set up costs for the loan and there may ongoing monthly costs too. You will also find that there will be costs if you miss a repayment and this can vary a lot between lenders. You may feel that you will never have to pay this as you are confident that you will manage the repayments. However, it is worth checking anyway just in case as if lenders are close on other costs then this could be a way of differentiating between them. Another cost to watch out for is an early redemption fee. This is a fee that is charged if you decide to repay the loan early. People will often choose to do this is they have enough money as it is cheaper than repaying the loan over a longer period but if the fee for doing so is too big then this will not be worthwhile.

Reputation

A reputation of a lender is important to some people. If it is something that you are interested in then you will need to do some research. Especially if looking for no credit check loans. It is wise to start by asking family and friends who they would recommend. They have no reason to be biased and will want to help you and so should give you great help with this. If you would rather not talk to them about the fact that you need to borrow money or know that they have not borrowed then you will need another method. It can be wise to then start looking online. There is a lot of biased information though and you will need to therefore look across a lot of websites or find that you trust to be unbiased. When reading reviews make sure that you are clear with what you are looking for in a lender so that if there are negative and positive points you can decide whether these are relevant to you or not, based on your criteria for the perfect lender. Try not to decide on a reputation of a lender without knowing why you have that feeling towards them. For example, you may think a particular one is good but not know why. It could just be that you know the name and that you have seen a lot of advertising for them and it makes you think they are good, when actually without any experience of using them or conversations with people who have used them, you actually have no reason to think that they are good.

Customer service

Customer service can be important to many people. If you need to contact them with any questions or for help with problems then you want to be sure that you can get through to them and that they will be good at helping you. You should be able to check this out for yourself by contacting them with some questions and seeing how fast and efficiently they get back to you. Use the method to contact them that you will feel that you would normally use and send the same questions to each of your prospective lenders so that you can compare them.

Flexibility

It may be important to you to have a lender that is flexible. This could be because you would like to make overpayments sometimes to pay off the debt more quickly, pay less on months where you have less money or that you might want to borrow more money or change to a different loan type. Consider what you might need to do and find out whether the lender will be flexible enough to help you with this. If course, this might not be important to you, it all depends on your personal opinion.

It is also worth thinking about whether there is anything else that is important to you with regards to a lender. You might want one that has a local branch, for example or one that has been going for a long time. Consider what is the most important to you and then make a list so that you can choose the lender that will suit you the best.

How to Cover the Costs of your Utility Bills

Our utility bills will cover all sorts of things such as electricity, water, land line, internet access and cell phone. These can all add up and sometimes it can be difficult to manage the costs of all of them. It is wise to think about ways that you can make paying for them easier.

  • Switch to cheaper providers – the first thing to try is to see whether you can switch to a cheaper supplier. Often you will have a selection that you can choose form and it is worth comparing the costs to see which you think will be the best for you. Obviously, price is not the only factor with these things though as you will also want to make sure that you are getting a good service. You may still be able to get as good a service as you are getting or less money though. If you are tied into a contract then it will probably be cheaper to wait until your contract ends before you switch, but you can look at the fee for ending the contract and calculate whether it is worth it. It is good to check the prices every year or so. Although it takes time to switch, it can be well worth it if you can save a significant amount of money.
  • Only use the minimum amount – it is worth also making sure that you do not use too much of any of these and pay more than necessary. Firstly, with telephones you may not need a land line and a cell phone, consider whether you need to use both. Then also think about the contract you have and whether you use all of the features of if you can go onto a cheaper one that still provides you with everything that you need. Also try to use them less. For example, think about whether you can cut down how much electricity you use to reduce your ill, by turning off things that you do not need to be using. Also consider using your phone less, using less water (if you are metered) and things like this. Once you change your habits it will be really easy to do this and you will find that you can start saving money really quickly.
  • Pay them first – if you tend to find it tricky to find enough money to pay these then prioritise them. Pay them before you pay for anything else. It can be wise to set up direct debits to pay them just after you get paid. This will mean that you should have enough money available still to be able to pay them and you will therefore not struggle to pay them. Of course, this could mean that you will then not have enough money left to pay for everything else that you want.
  • Cut costs elsewhere – it could therefore be necessary for you to have to cut costs elsewhere. It can be wise to think about everything that we are buying and consider whether we really need to buy it. If we do then compare the price of it so that you know that you are getting good value for money and that you are not paying more than necessary. This can take time, but once you find out prices and change your shopping habits accordingly, you should be able to find it easy and automatic to do this and will hopefully be pleased at the money that you manage to save.
  • Earn more – if you are really struggling then it could be necessary to think of ways to earn more money in order to help you to cover the costs of your bills. This will be trickier, particularly if you already have a job or if you have family commitments. However, there may still be things that you could try. Moving to a better paid job, could be something that will be really useful if that is a possible option for you. Taking on some freelance work, perhaps working from home or online may also help to boost your income.  Even doing a few small extras could make the difference between coping and not coping financially, particularly if you put all of the other things into practice as well.

This is quite a long list of things that you need to consider. However, you will need to think about what will be most effective for you and work on that first. The quicker that you can take steps to help the problem, the faster you will find a solution. You could work through each of the options one by one or you could pick some that you think you should try first as they are areas you feel will make the most difference to you.