Saturday, February 5, 2011

Secured Loans Loan Comparison


Secured Loans

Secured Loans versus Unsecured Loans
Secured loans have one primary distinction from unsecured loans. Secured loans have an asset usually a home, a car, or something of significant value that is held against the loan amount that is borrowed. In the instant of bank granting a secured loan the bank would have their name added to the title of a vehicle or hold the mortgage and title to the land or home making it a secured loan. Technically every Friday night pawn shops grant thousands of secured loans across the country. Their loans are secured with jewelry, tools, electronic equipment or even expensive clothing. When you redeem the items at the pawn shop you are technically paying off secured loans before they take full ownership of the items that you let them hold as collateral.
Unsecured loans are sometimes called signature loans because the only collateral or guarantee the lender has on the loan amount is your signature guaranteeing that you will repay the full amount of the loan. Signature loans are more difficult to be approved and even when they are granted they come with higher interest rates, higher monthly payment amounts and shorter terms of the loans.


Dangers of Secured Loans

When you are facing a financial difficulty it seems like a secured loan (if you have anything to secure it with) is a blessing. That certainly can be true. Very few of us would be able to buy our first home if we weren't able to secure the loan with the value of the property and allow the bank to hold the mortgage and be titled with us. The same is true with buying your first new car (I recommend only buying cars with cash) it would be difficult to get a lender to loan money on the car if they weren't named on the title as a lender with a right to prevent you from selling the car without their signature. However secured loans even with a vehicle purchase have a downside. If you trade in an automobile to make a purchase and then you can't make the payments when your car is repossessed you are left without a mode of transportation. Even more dangerous are the short term secured loans like a pawn shop or even a payday advance - cash advance store (they are securing the loan by taking your next pay check) can become a vicious cycle in which every month you are giving more and more of your income to the people securing loans for you and leaving you less and less money to live on. People start with short term secured loans to get out of the hole but frequently end up in a bigger hole because they are unable to pay back their secured loans. Fortunately it is very rare to find loan sharks that secure the loans with an unreasonable amount of assets based on the loan amount and have very short terms. They sometimes happen but are completely illegal form of secured loans.