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It is a fact of life that banks and other lenders are less inclined to loan money to people who do not have a home. After all, for most people, their home is their biggest asset, the place with the most equity stored in it. So, when you are merely a tenant, what can you do in the event you need money? Well, there are lenders who handle what are known as tenant loans.

Finding Tenant Loans

Step one is to do a search for firms that offer tenant loans. The Internet is the best place to find them; most of your local banks will probably not be inclined to offer such a loan. So, use a search engine like Yahoo or Google, and get a list of possible companies. Next, look over some of the sites and see what they offer. In many cases, they do not just offer a simple tenant loan. No, they will have services such as an unsecured loan for a tenant, an adverse credit tenant loan, a poor credit tenant loan, a bad credit tenant personal loan, a best tenant loan, a cheap loan for a tenant, and so forth. Some of these firms have literally more than twenty different types of tenant loans available!

What Information is Needed?

Once you have reviewed a couple of the websites, look at what sort of information each requires you to submit. Next, gather all of that information, go to the sites you think are best, and file an application on each one. Now, do not worry that you are going to be suddenly saddled with half a dozen loans! Nothing happens until you review the terms of each loan, and then decide on which one you want to accept. Before you do so, be sure to thoroughly check over the terms and conditions of the loan. After all, with some tenant loans, the interest rate can be high. So, review all of the offers you get, and then select the one best for you.

Advantages of Tenant Loans

In general, tenant loans do have a number of advantages over a standard bank loan. First off, you can submit your information and get a loan quote, and it is free and there is no obligation to you. Next, there is very little paperwork. If you have ever bought and house and signed all the documents involved in that process, you will appreciate a minimal “paper trail” financial arrangement. Then there is the speed of tenant loans. Usually, the lender can make a decision about making you an offer in as little as twenty-four hours. If you have a great need for quick cash, tenant loans can be a lifesaver for you! Finally, there is that old saying about banks not lending money to people who really need it. If you have had some financial troubles in the past, it may be very tough for you to get a bank loan. With tenant loans, they are willing to take a chance on someone with less than perfect credit.

Disadvantages of Tenant Loans

Now, bear in mind, that can mean having a slightly higher than normal interest rate. However, you must weigh all your options. If you have a real need for quick cash, and you know that you will have the income to cover the monthly payments; then getting a tenant loan can work out perfectly for you. It is like anything else in life. Look at the offer, consider your alternatives, review your finances carefully, and do not necessarily take the first offer made to you. There is nothing wrong with shopping around for the best deal. Once you find some good tenant loans, select the one best suited to meet your needs.

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For many people, a large-scale loan can be a terrify prospect. After all, in these uncertain times, with the economy slowing, home sales lagging, and prices dropping, it is a substantial risk, taking on a mortgage; or any other large debt, for that matter. That is why some people like to get payment protection; also known as payment protection insurance (PPI) in some places. In fact, if you are in the United States, and you are getting a loan through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), they require you to get PPI. In the case of some private lenders, they will require payment protection if the value of the mortgage is more than eighty percent of the value of the home. PPI has become very popular in the United Kingdom as well; and is known as Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI) there.

What is Payment Protection?

So, just what is PPI, and what does it do for you? As the term implies, it is a form of insurance. In the event you are unable to continue paying on a loan due to illness, an accident, or some other major catastrophe, the payment protection company will make those monthly payments. Many times, the lender of a mortgage will sell you a payment protection insurance policy, but you do not always have to buy from them. As with anything else in life, you can often shop around and find the best deal. When you consider the plethora of companies you can find just by search the Internet with a decent search engine, it makes sense to do a little comparative shopping before settling on a PPI.

Qualifications Needed

Normally, the companies have a variety of requirements you have to meet in order to qualify for a policy. You have to be in the right age range – not too young or too old; and be gainfully employed – either at a firm for a minimum period of time, or self-employed and able to show a consistent level of income. There is usually a waiting period before the policy kicks in, and then the payment period normally varies. In some cases, you can purchase mortgage insurance that will pay off the entire loan, but that is usually only in the event of the mortgage holder’s death! So, while your estate would benefit from that, you would not. No, with a normal payment protection policy, the payment period will vary from one to two years.

Also, while some PPI policies are only intended to cover major hardships, you can purchase policies that are much more flexible. As an example, in the United Kingdom, a payment protection plan that covers you in the event of unemployment is quite popular. When you consider the state of the economy, such a policy does not sound so bad; despite the higher premium. As with other PPI policies, the payment period for unemployment is typically one to two years.

Paying for Payment Protection

The question of premiums brings up an important point: how do you pay for a PPI (or MPPI)? Typically, the annual premium is divided equally across your twelve annual mortgage payments. So, this is why it is important to shop around and see what sort of premium you are going to pay, depending on the timeframe you want to cover, and the type of coverage (accident, illness, unemployment etc.) you want. Naturally, a twelve month PPI that only covers major medical issues will be much cheaper than a twenty-four month plan that covers everything.

Here are the factors for you to consider: how much more does the bigger policy cost? What will it add to your monthly payment? Can you handle that? Looking ahead, what are the chances of you losing your job – whether through layoffs, down-sizing etc. – in the near future? Weigh all of these carefully before deciding on a course of action.

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If you feel you are living your life from one pay check to the next and there never seems to be enough money to go around, you may be well advised to try credit counselling. The professionals who offer you this kind of advice can really help you arrive at a long-term, workable solution for your financial problems.

What do Credit Counselling Services Do?

First and foremost, as you might expect, given the name, credit counseling is primarily concerned with giving you advice on how to get out of debt and long-term, how to stay out of financial difficulty. You should be able to make much better spending and investment choices as a result, which should ease the financial pressure on you.
You can engage in credit counseling for any kinds of debts: credit cards, loans, medical bills and any other bills. It is a great way for many people to avoid filing for bankruptcy and also with credit counseling there is no obligation to take out any kind if a loan unless you wish to. However, the professionals involved with credit counselling will often suggest a debt consolidation loan which can cut your credit bills and pull them all into one more easily affordable monthly repayment.

Advantages of Credit Counseling

It is often possible to reduce the interest on your debts to zero, which is a significant help in enabling you to catch up with your debt repayments. Credit counselors can also get any late payment fees cancelled. This is because you will enter into an agreement with your credit counselor make planned repayments, so that the end is in sight for both you and your creditors. They will know when they will be paid and so they will b less likely to harass you for payment. In fact, one big advantage of credit counselling is that it can stop all letters and communication from your creditors so you don’t need to worry about that any longer. For many people in debt, this is a huge weight off their shoulders.

Going it Alone of Seeking Professional Help

You can opt to negotiate with your creditors yourself but this takes some guts, and you may also find that credit companies and other lenders are a lot less willing to deal with you directly than they are with a credit counsellor. Credit counsellors also have the benefits of knowing your creditors, so the chances are they will start negotiations from a position of strength, trading on their prior relationship. This is a strength not to be tossed away lightly. If you think you haven’t the confidence to successfully negotiate repayment terms you can stick to or you haven’t the discipline to honor the arrangements you will make, then you would be best advised to look for professional credit counselling help. If you decide to work for yourself in credit counseling, make sure you truly know everything there is to know about your debt situation. Keep a close eye on how much you are spending; what you are spending the money on; all of your account and credit balances and the interest rates that you are paying.

Next, stop spending anything at all on credit cards. Budget effectively, setting aside roughly half of your salary for regular expenses like the mortgage, vehicle loans, food, utility bills and food. Thirty per cent of your income you can then be spent on things you want but don’t necessarily need, like new clothes, entertainment, vacations etc. The remaining g twenty per cent each month you really should aim to save. That way, you will build up a reserve of savings you can draw upon for future expenses.
A good credit counseling agency will help you with all of this and will not charge high fees for doing so, so shop around for the right credit counseling agency for you.

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Whether you are just starting out on your financial journey, or if you are starting again after a bankruptcy, there are many things which you can do to build and improve upon your credit rating.

Here are five proven tips and hints to get you started on your path to excellent credit:

Tip#1 – Get a Copy of Your Credit Report –Have you ever seen your credit report? Do you know what is on it and what isn’t? Do you know if the information on it belongs to you or is in error? You can very easily and quickly get a free copy of your credit report online. If you have not yet done this, do it today. And, you should get a copy from each of the two credit reporting agencies because they each will have different information on you. They are: Experian and Equifax.

Tip #2 – Understand Your Credit Report – Now that you have your credit reports it is time to read through each of them and understand what everything on them is. Your name, address and employment information should be current and correct on it. Also, any credit accounts, mortgages, and vehicle loans should be listed with the correct amounts and payment histories. Make sure that if you have made all of your payments on-time that they have been reported as being on-time by your lenders.

Tip #3 – Dispute Errors in Your Credit Report – Once you have pulled your credit reports and have gone over everything on them, you need to dispute anything you find which is in error. It is estimated that something like 80% of the credit reports on U.K. citizens contain errors! Go to the website of the credit bureau and find out how to dispute errors – and then do it! It will only take a few minutes of your time but can greatly improve your credit rating.

Tip #4 – Pay Your Bills On-Time, All the Time – While it probably goes without saying, you should pay every bill, every month, on-time. However, as you are looking on your credit report, you can easily see which bills are on there and which aren’t. This can be helpful to you if you need to pay something late one month; choose something which will not show up on your credit report such as a utility bill!

Tip #5 – Use Credit Regularly – It might seem odd to you, but do you know that if you do not use credit on a regular basis that your credit scores will not be great? It is 100% true. If you do not have credit accounts then you do not have a good credit rating. To rectify this, apply for a credit card and use it regularly. Pay off your credit card each month so that you do not go into debt, but use it to build-up your credit.

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With the rising costs of everything in today’s world, it is becoming increasingly harder and harder to save up money for a down payment on your first home. While owning a home is a major life goal for many people in the U.K., attaining this goal takes some serious time and commitment to be able to reach it. The good news is that there are many ways you can save money in your day to day life to be able to save up enough money for a down payment on your first home. Here are five tips to get you started moving in the right direction:

Tip #1 – Payoff Any Existing Debt You Have. If you have any existing credit card or auto loan debt, it is essential to your savings plan that you payoff this debt as soon as possible. If possible, transfer higher interest credit card debt to a lower interest loan or a lower interest credit card to help you pay it off more quickly. The faster you payoff your existing debt, the faster you can beef up your savings for your home down payment.

Tip #2 – Generate Extra Income. If you have the ability to sell items online or even get a second job in the evenings, you can pay down any debt you might have more quickly and then begin to save money much faster. Even if your second job only pays you £200 per month, that will be £2,400 after only one year of extra effort.

Tip #3 – Evaluate Your Landline and Mobile Phones. If you are like most people, you have a mobile phone and a home landline phone as well. Take some time and evaluate if you really require both in your life. By eliminating one of your telephone services you can easily save yourself £50 per month, or £600 per year.

Tip #4 – Utilize Your Library and Other Free Local Services. If you are someone who reads a lot or even if you simply like to watch a lot of DVD movies, use your library instead of purchasing or renting. Your tax dollars pay for library services and you should be using them as much as possible. The same can be said for any free local events, seek out and find things to do in your local areas which are offered free of charge.

Tip #5 – Use the Internet to Save Money. The Internet allows you to purchase just about anything and have it delivered to your home. Use this great resource to save yourself money wherever possible. You will likely find that even with paying for shipping, you can save yourself money making purchases online rather than in your own local area.

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Just incase you haven’t heard of them, lenders in the U.K. are now offering tenant loans. A tenant loan is an unsecured loan which you can qualify for if you live in rented accommodation, are a council tenant, are a tied tenant, or are living with your parents.

Generally, tenant loans are available for loan amounts between £1,000 and £25,000, with interest rates which are generally as low as 6.5% and go up from there. The interest rate you will qualify for depends entirely on your credit history and credit score. If you have a good credit score, then your cost to borrow money through a tenant loan will be a lot less than if you have bad credit, just as with nearly any other type of loan.

Debt Consolidation with a Tenant Loan

One of the most common uses for a tenant loan is to consolidate higher interest credit card debt. By obtaining a tenant loan you can use it to pay off all of your high interest credit card debt and be left with one monthly payment on a debt with a lower interest rate.

For example, assume for a moment that you have the following debt:

• VISA @ 17% interest with a balance of £1,000
• VISA @ 15% interest with a balance of £1,000
• MasterCard @ 17% interest with a balance of £1,000
• MasterCard @ 23% interest with a balance of £1,000

Rather than make four monthly payments on your £4,000 debt, you could obtain a tenant loan for the £4,000 and have one monthly payment. Additionally, if you have good credit then you could likely get a tenant loan with interest in the 6.5-11% range. This lower interest rate will help you to pay off your debt sooner and at much less overall cost to you.

Purchase a Car with a Tenant Loan

Another popular use for a tenant loan is to purchase a vehicle. If you are interested in purchasing a used car from a private individual, using a tenant loan can be a good way to finance your vehicle purchase. Additionally, if you have a good credit score you can sometimes get a better interest rate on a tenant loan than on an automobile loan to purchase a new car from a car dealership.

No matter what the use of your tenant loan, to consolidate debt or pay for a vehicle, by shopping around on the Internet you can get the best deal possible.

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It is a well known fact that even through you plan and budget for your life, sometimes things happen which you did not have any way to pre-plan for. The reality of life is that people loose their jobs, businesses go out of business, illness and death happens in families, and the list goes on and on. While there are no certainties in life, you can do the best to always plan for the unknown. However, what happens if your unforeseen event happens when you are just starting out? Or, what happens when your unforeseen event happens when you are just starting to recover from yet another catastrophic event? It is in this time in your life where bankruptcy can be the financial tool with is the answer to your problems.

Bankruptcy is a Financial Tool

While bankruptcy has always been a tool used by businesses without much stigma, the same cannot be said for individual bankruptcy. Here in the U.K. the act of someone filing for personal bankruptcy does have a stigma attached to it. Thankfully, people are starting to realize that bankruptcy is simply a financial tool which is necessary for individual people to use, just as it is necessary for businesses to use.

Bankruptcy was designed to offer people, and businesses alike, a fresh start at their financial lives. What bankruptcy does is allow all of your non-secured debt to be discharged while allowing you to keep a reasonable amount of your assets intact to allow you to continue to live your life. This makes bankruptcy a valuable financial tool to use if you are in a position where you are likely to improve your financial situation from this date forward. Bankruptcy essentially clears off the financial slate of your life and allows you to start over from scratch without any debts dragging you down.

The Negative Effects of Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy does not come to you as an option without costs. There are costs of the process itself, as well as costs to your credit rating for many years following your discharge of debts. You can basically count on bankruptcy ruining your credit rating for six years. However, even during this post-bankruptcy six year timeframe, you can begin to slowly rebuild up your credit rating. Ultimately, once the six years has passed, then you will be in good standing again with your credit scores and able to move on with your life.

Whether or not bankruptcy is right for you is strictly a personal choice; however, it is vital that you keep in mind that bankruptcy is a financial tool which was designed to give you a fresh start if you need one.

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Having to file for bankruptcy is one of the most devastating financial decisions that you can have to make. People file for bankruptcy for many reasons and situations.

Where there used to be a stigma attached to filing for bankruptcy, thankfully that is no longer the case today. Many people now realize that bankruptcy is simply a financial tool which sometimes needs to be used to make someone’s live more manageable. However, just because the stigma is subsiding, the after effects of bankruptcy often linger on in the way of your credit report.

Filing for bankruptcy will totally kill your credit scores and the filing will last on your credit report for a whopping six years. However, that is basically the only two ramifications to you for filing. And, the good news is that soon after you have filed for bankruptcy, you can start to rebuild your credit and improve your scores!

One of the first things you should do after having filed for bankruptcy is to decide that you will do everything you can to avoid ever having to file again. This includes building up an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses, and it means making a pact with yourself, and your spouse if you have one, that you will not ever let your spending or debt load get out of hand in this way again.

The second thing you should do to improve your credit post-bankruptcy is to make sure that you make any and all payments on time, each and every month. This includes paying your mortgage, car payments, and any debts which you chose to keep through the bankruptcy process. Whatever you do, do not make any late payments – for any reason at all!

In addition to these two things, you will want to approach your bank about obtaining a secured credit card. With a secured credit card you will be making a deposit in the amount of your credit line. You can used a secured credit card just as you would any other credit card, but the lender is assured of payment because if you do not make your payments they can keep the money in your savings account which is being used as collateral.

Once you have your secured credit card, you want to use it to make a purchase or two each and every month, and then make sure you pay it off each month when you receive your statement. Every month when you make your payment, the lender will be reporting your on-time payments to the credit reporting agencies. As time passes, these payments help to improve your credit scores.

It is important to note that even after bankruptcy you can still finance a vehicle or get a mortgage. However, the worse your credit scores, the higher interest rate you will pay for the loan. Sometimes when you must take on one of these bad credit or sub-prime type loans you can make the regular payments for a year or two and then refinance them for a better rate, once your credit scores have improved.

As you can see, bankruptcy is something which you can survive and even prosper after. Taking the time to rebuild your credit after your bankruptcy can insure that when you need to borrow money again, you can do it without huge costs and high interest rates.

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There is one thing, above all else, which can either negatively or positively effect your ability to borrow money. That same thing will determine the cost at which you can borrow money and the interest rate you will pay for the privilege. Sometimes that same thing even has the ability to keep you from getting the job you desire. That one thing is your credit rating.

Credit Bureaus

Every financial transaction you make, whether it is your monthly mortgage payment or your credit card balance, is potentially reported to the credit bureaus. The two major credit reporting bureaus here in the UK are Equifax and Experian. Both Equifax and Experian keep a file on every person living in the UK who has any form of income, a mortgage, or a credit card. Your credit report file details your financial history and determines your resulting credit rating score.

Your Credit Rating

Your credit rating scores are used to effect how you borrow money, the interest rates you pay for borrowed money, and potentially it is also used to judge your worthiness for a job. The higher your credit rating score, the less risk you are to loan money to and therefore the lower your interest rate you will have to pay. Additionally, if you have a higher credit score some employers view this as if you are a more stable person able to be a better employee than someone with a lower score. People with lower credit scores are seen as higher risks to loan money to and therefore pay a higher interest rate for money they borrow.

Improving Your Credit Rating

The good news, if you happen to have a lower credit rating score than you would like, is that you can do some very simple things to improve your scores. The first thing you should always do is to pay your bills on time, each and every month. By paying your bills each month on time you are showing that you are responsible with your money.
The second thing you should do to help improve your credit rating is to make sure that you are wisely using credit. A wise use of credit is to have one or two credit cards that you use on a regular basis and pay off each month when the billing statement comes. This shows that you understand how credit works and that you can afford to pay the bills as they come in.

Credit Reporting Agency Errors

It is said that one in four credit reports contains at least one error. Maybe you have a common name, or someone at the credit reporting agency simply typed in some data incorrectly, no matter what the reason is, it is very common to have errors on your credit report. You should order a copy of your credit report each year and if you find errors on it you should then follow the policies of the credit bureaus to get the errors corrected. Correcting errors on your credit report can be one of the best things you can do to boost your scores and allow you to borrow money at a lower cost.

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