- The Savvy Promise
Trying to score your way into a personal loan that will work in your favour in more than one way? Whether you are looking for a personal loan with low interest rates that will help fund your wedding, dream holiday, or simply consolidate your debt, knowing a hack or two can save you in the long run. Here are five simple hacks that you would wish you knew earlier.
Automatic payments
Save yourself the trouble of possibly slipping up on your repayments because you forgot by setting up an automatic payment schedule with your bank. You might have heard of this advice, but the bonus tip you can do with this is round off your payments, by squeezing in a little more. Whatever the amount you want to round off to it can help you save in terms of the interest rate on your loan.
Migrate your balances
You could consider transferring your personal loan debt to a balance transfer credit card. One of the common uses of a personal loan is to consolidate existing debt that comes in the form of credit card debt, student and car loans that need to be paid off.
You will be able to get a lower interest by consolidating or interest free months that can extend to 24 months by consolidating your loans rather than paying for them individually.
Pay off your loan early
If there is one goal that you can thank yourself immensely for keeping, it would be this one. When you sign on a personal loan you agree to certain repayment term lengths. Paying it off before the agreed term is considered to be paying your fees early. Most lenders won’t charge you anything for this, but there are some who might. It will always be in your best interest to ask about the terms and conditions to understand what comes with the loan.
Watch out for fees and extra’s
The last thing you would want is to celebrate too early because you found a personal loan, but failed to check the fees and extra’s that come with it. This small detail could have you paying out more than you expected. Check the fees and extra’s that come with it and see if it would be something that would be suited towards your needs. You most powerful weapon is to ask.
Do you really need a personal loan?
Your immediate answer could be yes, and this might be justified by the great sign on deals that are currently going on with the promise of a low interest rate. However, you will need to ask yourself if this is worthwhile for your money in the long run? Is the 0% interest rate that comes with a balance transfer card really a sweet deal or is there certain conditions to this 0%?
When it all boils down to it a personal loan can be of great assistance for those emergency cases where you need a money injection to see you through, but it also best to re-analyse your spending habits and budget to see where you need to make adjustments. Always compare a loan to get a better offer before putting your name on the dotted line.
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This guide provides general information and does not consider your individual needs, finances or objectives. We do not make any recommendation or suggestion about which product is best for you based on your specific situation and we do not compare all companies in the market, or all products offered by all companies. It’s always important to consider whether professional financial, legal or taxation advice is appropriate for you before choosing or purchasing a financial product.
The content on our website is produced by experts in the field of finance and reviewed as part of our editorial guidelines. We endeavour to keep all information across our site updated with accurate information.
Approval for personal loans is always subject to our lender’s terms, conditions and qualification criteria. Lenders will undertake a credit check in line with responsible lending obligations to help determine whether you’re in a position to take on the loan you’re applying for.
The interest rate, comparison rate, fees and monthly repayments will depend on factors specific to your profile, such as your financial situation, as well as others, such as the loan’s size and your chosen repayment term. Costs such as broker fees, redraw fees or early repayment fees, and cost savings such as fee waivers, aren’t included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts may result in a different comparison rate.