Installment loans are a great way to get a hold of money fast. This is one of the best ways to solve your emergency short-term financial difficulties. When should you apply for an installment loan? And is there an installment loan for less then perfect credit?

Installment loans should be used sparingly because regardless of your credit score, they are very expensive. The difference in APR between an excellent credit installment loan and an installment loan for less then perfect credit is not a few little percentage points – it can be over 100%. These types of loans are usually for up to $1,500 if you are a first time applicant and up to $2,500 if you are a returning customer.

Here is what you can expect from an installment loan.  If you have an excellent credit score and you take out $1,000, you will pay the lender $2,769. This is calculated with an APR of 219.4%. There are installment loans with a lot higher APR rates than this one and if you don’t have an excellent credit score you might end up paying back as much as $3,500 for a $1,000 loan.

An installment loan for less then perfect credit should be used only in an emergency. If you don’t need money right away, you can always apply for a personal loan. Many banks offer “quick loans” that you can get approved for within minutes and get your money the next day, or even sooner, depending on the lender you choose. Ask yourself, “Do I really need such a loan?”, because it is very easy to apply for one and be approved, but if for some reason you aren’t able to make a payment the APR of over 200% won’t magically disappear and it may turn your $1,000 loan unmanageable in a short period of time.

Tags: installment, Installment Loan, installment loan for less then perfect credit, perfect credit

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Home Equity Loan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.