Are you in Oklahoma City, OK, and in need of some financial help “sooner” rather than later? Then you’re in luck—we’ve got the information you need to find personal loans in OKC!
Oklahoma City, OK: The Basics
Oklahoma City is a major midwestern city in the United States. It is the capital of the state of—you guessed it—Oklahoma. And with a metro area population of nearly 1.5 million people, “OKC” is Oklahoma’s largest city.
Since its founding in 1889, Oklahoma City’s economy has remained anchored to natural resources. It is the home of one of the biggest livestock markets in the world. In the 1920s, the city discovered a rich oil field underneath it. Today, you can find oil derricks all around Oklahoma City; there’s even an active oil well on the lawn of the Oklahoma state capitol building!
If you’re looking for a loan in OKC, you may think that the best options are only available to people with perfect credit. This article will show you that hassle-free personal loans are available and waiting to provide you with the financial fix you need.
Personal Loans, Explained
Personal loans are loans available for a borrower to use for any financial solution. A lender will provide a personal loan in a lump sum, but the borrower repays the money in a series of fixed monthly payments or installments. In Oklahoma City, you may have heard personal loans referred to as installment or signature loans.
Are Personal Loans Secured or Unsecured?
A loan is either secured or unsecured. The difference between secured and unsecured loans depends on whether or not you need collateral. Collateral is a valuable asset required from a borrower to secure the loan. Collateral makes the loan less risky for the lender, meaning lower rates on interest and other fees.
You need collateral to get a secured loan. Secured loans include mortgages and car loans, which use your house or car as collateral. Lenders allow these loans to have longer loan terms than secured loans. But, if you miss too many payments and default on a secured loan, the lender will take your collateral and sell it off to get its money back. While secured loans are less risky for lenders, they are much riskier.
On the other hand, you don’t need collateral to get an unsecured loan. Unsecured loans include student loans and credit cards. Lenders who provide unsecured loans determine approval based on your financial reputation. Some unsecured loans will dive deep into your history. Others will want to know less about your past and more about how you currently manage your bills.
Personal loans are unsecured loans. Without the need for collateral, unsecured loans are accessible to people who either don’t have or can’t afford to wager any collateral on a loan. Moreover, the best personal loans are suited to individual needs.
Why You Should Get a Personal Loan
Some loans, like mortgages or student loans, can only be used for specific purposes.
However, you can use a personal loan any way you like. The versatility of personal loans makes them useful for many situations.
One of the most common uses for a personal loan is debt consolidation. A consolidation loan pays off multiple accounts—like credit cards and unpaid medical bills. Instead of making payments and racking up interest on several accounts, you only have to handle one loan.
Personal loans also finance things usually bought with traditional loans. For example, you can buy a car with a personal loan instead of an auto loan. Or, you can get a personal loan for tuition or books when student loans don’t cover all of your school needs.
Common Personal Loan Costs
You must understand how loan pricing works if you’ve never used any loan before. The amount you receive will be less than what you will owe the lender. The increase comes from the application of these standard loan fees:
Interest
Every personal loan has an interest rate. Interest is the essential cost of borrowing money. Any “buy now, pay later” scenario will involve some form of interest. Lenders calculate loan interest as a percentage of the amount you want to borrow (principal) over a year. To that end, most interest rates appear as an annual percentage rate or APR.
Origination Fees
Origination fees cover the administrative costs involved with your loan. Some lenders charge origination costs upfront, while others will roll them into your fixed monthly payments. Origination charges are standard in significant lending agreements like mortgages.
Prepayment Penalty
Prepayment penalties are applied to your loan if you pay it back before the loan term ends. Even though the lender gets back all the loans, fewer payments mean less interest. Some lenders use prepayment penalties to deter borrowers from shortening the loan.
Understanding Your Credit Score
Even if you’ve never taken out a personal loan before, you know that your credit matters. But, how do you know if you have good or bad credit? The answer lies in your credit score.
Your credit score follows you along your life’s financial journey. It is a number ranging from 300 to 850 that rates your creditworthiness. Think of creditworthiness as an educated guess, based on your past financial behavior, of your ability to pay back a loan.
Your credit score comes from the information in a credit report. Credit reports come from credit bureaus that analyze consumer data. There are three major credit bureaus for Americans: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Every consumer that has ever applied for a loan, bought a car, or financed any kind of big purchase, has at least one report. Each bureau performs its reporting, so you most likely have three different credit scores.
Payment History
Your payment history is the most critical aspect of your credit report. Payment history keeps a record of late or delinquent payments on your accounts. Your ability to pay back your loan matters most to lenders, so maintaining a solid payment history is essential. Private lenders rely on your history to determine personal loan approvals or financing without considering many other factors.
Credit Utilization
Credit utilization shows a lender how much you carry on your lines of credit. For most consumers, it all comes down to their credit card debt. If you have a $1,500 balance on a credit card with a $3,000 limit, your utilization is 50%. When you keep a high utilization score, your credit score suffers. Always pay off your credit card when you can. But, keeping your utilization at or below 30% keeps your score stable.
Credit History
Also known as credit age, your credit history is the amount of time you’ve had an active credit account. Long credit history can be good for your score, but your payment history and credit utilization have a much stronger influence.
New Credit
Potential lenders perform a hard inquiry into your credit report when you “have your credit run” for a credit application or loan. New credit records these hard inquires, as each one shows a time when you’ve applied for a new loan or credit line. Too much activity can harm your score.
Credit Mix
It may seem like your bills are all the same—they all want money! But in fact, you borrow and manage different types of loans in different ways. For example, your credit card and your car loan are a good mix because one loan has a steady payment schedule while the other depends on your spending. Being able to manage a variety of credit affects your score.
Can I Get a Personal Loan With Bad Credit?
As its name suggests, good credit can lead to good personal loan options—a healthy credit score grants access to loans with lower rates and longer terms. When you have a long time to repay your loan, you could have lower monthly installments. So if good credit means good loans, is the opposite true if you have bad credit?
While building and maintaining good-to-excellent credit is a great financial goal, your credit score doesn’t have to affect your chances of getting a personal loan drastically.
Be Careful of These Personal Loan Alternatives
To be in financial trouble is to be stressed about finding money solutions quickly. Every unpaid bill can rack up more debt in late fees, so the longer you wait, the more you’ll owe. And if you’re not careful, the pressure to find a cash advance can ultimately result in you making decisions that will cost you later—literally. You may have come across some of these same-day alternatives to personal installment loans. Each of them has some strings attached that make them less-than-ideal lending options.
Title Loan
A title loan is a loan available to people who own the title to their vehicle (that is, they are done paying a car loan and are the car’s legal owner). A title loan is a secured loan and requires the car’s title as collateral. The lender holds the title until you pay your loan back. But like any other secured loan, a defaulted title loan will result in you losing ownership of your car. While any car owner can get a title loan, it’s essential to consider the risk involved with a title loan. If you’re in financial trouble but still holding on to a considerable expense like a car, it’s probably a big part of your life. Think about it—is your short-term financial issue so dire that you are willing to risk your wheels?
Payday Loan
Payday loans are short-term unsecured loans that are supposed to handle short-term money problems. In theory, borrowers take out payday loans to cover expenses between paychecks. The loan is due a few days later, and the borrower clears the balance when they get paid. However, borrowers rarely turn payday loans around on time. The high interest and service charges make the loan amount challenging to repay quickly. You automatically get rolled into a new agreement that applies more interest in fees when you default on a payday loan. It takes many borrowers years to climb out of the trap of payday loans, which is why many financial experts advise people to steer clear of these options.
These same-day loan alternatives have something in common—cost and risk that isn’t worth it in the long run. A personal installment loan offers financial relief now without putting you in more money trouble later. And with an installment loan from a direct lender, your past doesn’t have to matter.
Why You Should Choose CreditNinja
If you’re looking for a personal loan solution in Oklahoma City, CreditNinja has you covered! Even with less-than-perfect credit, you can get a personal loan that works right into your budget. Every CreditNinja personal loan offers our customers the following benefits.
Fast Application Process
CreditNinja personal has loan applications available anytime. You don’t need to stand in a long line with tons of paperwork to prove that you need a loan. Give us a few minutes and a few pieces of information, and we’ll show you how we can work together. And if your loan is approved, the money will appear in your checking account in no time!
Real Customer Care
CreditNinja’s Customer Care Team is ready to answer questions about your loan or talk with you about other ways to help. No matter how simple a personal loan can be, sometimes you have questions. And our team has the answers.
No Prepayment Penalties
Our loans are here to help you get out of debt fast. So when you can pay us back before the end of your loan term, go for it! None of our loans have prepayment fees because you shouldn’t be discouraged from being better with money.
Need a Personal Loan? You’ll Be “OK” with CreditNinja!
Oklahoma City, we’re sorry about that last headline. We just couldn’t help ourselves. But terrible puns aside, what we’re saying is true. CreditNinja is helping Oklahoma City get out of debt without worrying about another headache from payday loans. Apply now, or contact us for more information.