Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A Story About Signature Loans for People with Bad Credit

By Mark Richardson

There are hundreds reasons you might need to take out a short term loan in your life. For example, you might wake up one morning to find it's April 13th, and you only have two days until your taxes are due. You had a particularly prosperous year last year, and you owe the government some serious cash.

There's only one problem: although you had set aside a chunk of change to pay Uncle Sam, that account is now empty thanks to an impromptu trip to Las Vegas with some good friends. The government doesn't care how much fun you had in Vegas - they just want their money. You're in a position where you're going to either borrow some money to pay your taxes or incur some serious penalties and interest.

A lack of cash isn't the only problem you have to resolve before you can pay off the Feds - you're also facing your poor credit history. Remember when you purchased an almost new Ford truck because they were having a year-end blowout sale? You borrowed the money for the truck even when you knew you'd have no real ability to keep up with the large monthly payments, and not much time had gone by before the truck had to be repossessed.

So here you are, taxes due, no cash on hand, with a tax bill looming. There is hope, if you know where to look. There are signature loans for people with bad credit. You can qualify, but you have to know what you're doing.

First you should understand what a signature loan is, although it's fairly self explanatory. You walk in, fill out a couple forms, sign your name (hence, signature loan) and walk out with the cash you need. It's that simple, but it may not be that easy unless you can fulfill a couple of the prerequisites.

A few complications may arise. One, you'll have to prove to the bank that you actually have earnings to justify their loan. A lender may not mind your bad credit as much if they see that your current income exceeds your personal expenses including the new payment on your loan.

And what about collateral? Collateral is defined as some valuable article the lender could sell on the open market if the borrower decided not to fulfill the obligations of the loan. It's a classic risk-minimizing tool for banks who want to be able to recover all or part of their lost money when they loan to flaky people. Be careful - if you use something you actually care about for collateral, you run the serious risk of losing your valued item.

Make a strong case to your prospective bank. Let them know you're a person of integrity, and you will repay the debt if they take a chance on lending you the money. And for future reference - don't spend your tax money in Vegas. - 16036

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