Personal Loans Tampa, FL: Bad Credit & Installment Loans

Are you living in Florida and looking for personal loans? Tampa, FL, has some of the world’s most beautiful beaches and views anywhere, but where do Tampanians look to find a financial fix that works, regardless of their credit rating? If you’re ready to find out how you can find personal loans in Tampa, this article is what you need to read on your next beach day.

Tampa: The Basics

Tampa is a port city in the state of Florida. It sits on the state’s Gulf Coast, on the north shore of Tampa Bay. Tampa is the third-largest city in Florida, with a metro population of 4 million people. As a hub of commerce on the state’s western coast, Tampa has a diversified economy. Naturally, the tourism industry is big business in the city. Additionally, Tampa’s top employers are the finance, health care, insurance, and tech sectors.

If you’re looking for personal loans, Tampa has options to meet people where they are. Bad credit used to make or break your chances for a loan—until now. Read on to learn what you need to know.

What Is a Personal Loan?

A personal loan is a loan that comes in a lump sum and paid back over time. Typically, personal loan payments break down into equal monthly installments. Installment payments are due until the loan balance is zero.

The Difference Between Secured and Unsecured Loans

A loan is either secured or unsecured. The significant difference between the two types of loans is collateral. Collateral is a valuable asset that guarantees your loan. When collateral is in play, the risk to the lender decreases. That is because the lender can seize your collateral if you default on your loan. On the other hand, your risk as a borrower increases. It’s unlikely that you’ll want to lose your assets, so you are more likely to pay your loan back.

Secured loans require collateral. Typically secured loans include real property, like Auto loans and mortgages. The collateral is the property you are financing with the loan. If you fail to pay the loan back, the lender can take the property to recoup their lost funds. If you’ve ever heard of a car getting repossessed, it’s because of an auto loan default.

Unsecured loans do not require collateral. These loans depend on your level of creditworthiness for approval. Creditworthiness is an assessment of your ability to be a good borrower. That is someone who can take on a loan and pay it back on time and in full.

Personal Loan Costs

Should you decide to take out a personal loan, know that you will pay back more than you borrow. Every personal loan comes with fees. These fees vary from lender to lender, but most loans come with some or all of the following fees:

Interest

Interest is the basic fee that comes with every type of loan. Lenders calculate interest as a percentage of the amount of money you want to borrow, or principal, over a year. This is the loan’s annual percentage rate (APR). Every personal installment loan payment includes a portion of the loan plus interest. Most personal loans have fixed interest rates instead of variable interest rates that are affected by the market.

Origination Fees

Origination fees cover the administrative costs of your personal loan. Lenders set origination fees; some may charge them while others won’t. Origination fees are most common in lending situations that require other professional fees for services like property inspections and legal consultations.

Pre-Payment Penalties

Some lenders will charge you a penalty for paying off a loan early. Since interest compounds on every monthly payment, lenders use penalties to discourage action that would decrease their profits. Penalties are based on a percentage of the loan’s remaining balance.

Remember, all personal loans can have different structures for interest and fees. Whatever loan option you choose, it’s critical that you fully understand the actual cost of your loan. Personal loans are a long-term financial commitment, so you want a loan that you can work into your monthly budget.

Uses for a Personal Loan

Personal loans are versatile. Unlike a mortgage or car loan, you can use a personal loan to handle many different types of expenses. Here are some of the most common reasons people get personal loans:

Debt Consolidation

Using a personal loan to pay off multiple lenders is called debt consolidation. Debt consolidation allows you to reduce your debt payment obligations by grouping multiple debts and paying them off. Then, you can focus on one monthly installment payment. Consolidation is ideal for managing interest-accruing financial issues, like credit card debt.

Medical Emergencies

An accident or unforeseen health issue can put your finances in trouble—even if you have an emergency fund to help cover costs. Personal loans can help you get debt collectors from hospitals and insurance companies off your back. With a personal loan, you can stay focused on your health and recovery.

Major Life Events

We always want to make incredible experiences for our loved ones. Personal loans allow people to make the big events in life memorable. When you use personal loans to boost your money-saving strategies, you can make your dream wedding, graduation, or vacation a reality.

Personal Loans and Your Credit

Your Credit Report

Your credit report is the story of your relationship with your debt. Credit reports track and predict consumer behavior so that lenders can make sound decisions about loaning money to you. To the average lender, you are an investment. And many of them depend on credit reports to determine how good of an investment you are. Credit reports compile information in the five following areas to determine your credit score:

Payment History

Every late or delinquent payment on any of your accounts goes on your payment history. Your payment history has the most significant impact on your credit score. Improving your payment history in the course of just a few months can significantly raise your credit score by dozens of points. Consumers with low credit scores but good payment history can still qualify for many types of financing.

Credit Utilization

Your credit utilization is a way to monitor how you handle your credit. Keeping a high balance on your credit cards tells lenders that you do not promptly pay down your credit, which means that you are probably racking up debt with no real repayment strategy.

Credit History

Credit history is the age of your oldest line of credit. A long history shows that you have been managing your credit for a while. If other factors of your report are strong (especially your payment history), credit history can boost your credit score.

New Credit

When you have “your credit ran,” the chances are high that the potential lender is accessing your credit. For example, every time you apply for a credit card, the credit card company performs a hard inquiry. Multiple hard inquiries when applying for several credit cards can hurt your credit score.

Credit Mix

You are sporting a pretty good credit mix if you’re managing a personal loan, credit card debt, and a mortgage. Some of these accounts have fixed payments, while others are usage-based. Keeping all of these accounts current can be a good sign of your potential in handling a new loan.

Your Credit Score

Your credit score is your rating as a borrower, based on the information in your credit report. Credit scores range from 300 to 850. The higher your credit score, the better your credit.

300-579: Poor/Bad
580-669: Fair
670-739: Good
740-799: Very good
800-850: Excellent

Good Credit, Bad Credit, and Personal Loans

People with good credit and bad credit can have very different experiences searching for personal installment loans. Good credit provides access to loans from many different lenders with low rates and fees. On the other hand, bad credit makes the personal loan search more difficult.

Personal Loan Lenders

Finding a personal loan lender in Tampa isn’t a difficult task. There are lenders all over the city that offer financial assistance. But, not all lenders offer everything to everyone. Let’s look at what it takes to get a loan from these familiar lending sources:

Banks

Personal installment loans from a bank are safe and reliable loans easily managed through your other bank accounts. However, these loans are difficult to get. Banks restrict their low-interest installment loans to customers with large accounts, a near-excellent credit score, or both.

Credit Union

Credit Unions are financial institutions that serve a membership. Usually, credit unions members share professional associations (like teachers or healthcare workers). Additionally, some big corporations operate credit unions for their employees. On the whole, these organizations offer installment loans with competitive rates, but you can only work with a credit union if you are a member.

Private Lenders

While banks and credit unions have lots of requirements, Private lenders provide personal installment loans to all types of borrowers. Private lenders also make it possible to get a personal loan online, which means that they can help people in parts of the country that don’t have local access to

Instead of heavily using credit ratings as determining factors, private lenders analyze payment history and debt-to-income ratios. The factors that private lenders use focus more on your current financial behavior than your past. That means that people with less-than-perfect credit have a better chance of being approved by a private lender than a bank or credit union.

Why Payday Loans Don’t Work

Payday loans are high-risk, instant cash loans. They are meant to cover expenses that pop up between paychecks, so they are given tight loan terms—payday loans are usually due within 10-30 days. Because they are so expensive, millions of people default on payday loans. The fees and added interest on payday loans make them challenging to pay off, and borrowers usually end up paying much more for a payday loan than they expected. Their wide availability has made them very popular throughout the years. However, online installment loans can work just as fast as payday loans but offer better loan agreements that allow borrowers to repay the loan in a reasonable time.

Why CreditNinja Personal Loans Work

For years, we’ve believed that a bad credit score is a brick wall when it comes to getting a personal loan. But with CreditNinja, you can borrow money to get you over that wall and beyond. A bad credit personal loan from CreditNinja works like any of our loans. Regardless of your credit score, our installment loans feature:

Clear Loan Terms

When you’re getting a bad credit loan, you are getting an opportunity to build solid payment history while getting the help you need. With a CreditNinja loan, you’ll know the ins and outs of your loan agreement, so our relationship is solid. There are no hidden fees or conditions with any of our installment loans.

No Pre-Payment Penalties

A personal installment loan can help organize your spending and bill paying. So if you find a way to get your CreditNinja loan paid off earlier than expected, we think that’s awesome. We don’t charge prepayment penalties because we want to see you back on your feet as soon as possible. And when you need us again, we’ll be here.

Excellent Customer Service

A bad credit loan doesn’t have to mean a bad customer experience. Our Customer Care Team is available to answer your questions about your installment loan or any other way we can help you build a bright financial future.

Loans Designed With You in Mind

CreditNinja is here to help Tampa get out of the payday loan debt cycle with installment loans that work. All it takes is a few minutes to change your financial future. Apply online today, or contact us for more information.

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