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What can I use a personal loan for?
Depending on the lender and your financial situation, you might be able to borrow up to $100,000 with a personal loan. But what could you use it for?
One way you could use a personal loan would be to consolidate debt. Here’s how a debt consolidation works:
- Problem – you have two or more debts that have high interest rates
- Solution – you take out a personal loan, at a lower interest rate, to pay off those debts
- Result – you’re left with just one debt and a lower interest rate
For example, imagine you had the following debts:
- Credit card #1 – debt $10,000, interest rate 19.99 per cent
- Credit card #2 – debt $6,000, interest rate 18.50 per cent
- Car loan – debt $13,000, interest rate 9.75 per cent
Now imagine you took out a $29,000 personal loan ($10,000 + $6,000 + $13,000), at 6.99 per cent, to pay off those three loans. You’d still owe the same amount of money, but now your interest repayments would be reduced and you’d have just one loan to manage
10 ways to use a personal loan
- Debt consolidation
- Car
- Boat
- Wedding
- Holiday
- School fees
- Medical bills
- Moving
- Renovating
- Fitting out the home
Other ways to use a personal loan
Personal loans are often used to pay for major expenses like:
- Weddings
- Holidays
- School fees
- Medical bills
You could also use a personal loan to pay for home-related expenses:
- Moving
- Renovating
- White goods, electrical goods, furniture
Some lenders will let you use a personal loan to buy a car or a boat – although others will make you use a car loan instead.
The key features of a personal loan
If you’ve decided to take out a personal loan, there are a few more questions to answer.
What loan size do you want? As a general rule, lower is better, so you can get out of debt as quickly as possible.
How often would you like to make loan repayments? Weekly, fortnightly or monthly?
What loan term would you like? Generally, personal loans last from one to 10 years. A longer loan term means your regular repayments are lower, but your total interest bill over the life of the loan is higher.
You also need to decide on the type of loan. Secured or unsecured? Variable or fixed?
5 questions to ask before taking out a personal loan
- How much will I borrow?
- How often will I make repayments?
- How long will my loan be?
- Will my loan be secured or unsecured?
- Will my loan be variable or fixed?
Disclaimer
This article is over two years old, last updated on January 23, 2018. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent personal loans articles.
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