Finance Roll

A fast secured loan is generally going to cost you more than a secured loan that takes longer. While it will cost you less than an unsecured loan, the fact that you require it quickly generally puts up a red flag in the mind of the lender and that will cost you more.

A lender who thinks, why is this person not prepared to pay for this short term crisis on her or his own? is a lender who thinks the consumer is ill prepared to repay the fast secured loan as well. The higher the lender risk, the higher the rate.

One of the riskiest of the fast secured loan family is the title loan. Just as with payday loan, a car title loan is secured and fast and is marketed as a loan for emergencies. The reality is much grimmer, however, in that it is often the trap that puts the poor into an even worse cycle of debt.

A typical fast secured title loan charges well over 100 percent in annual interest, has to be paid within 30 days and is for considerably less than the cars value.

The worst case scenario for this type of fast secured loan - and happens far too often - is that the borrower loses her or his only transportation, and the means to get to and from work. Which, of course, considerably worsens the financial situation that brought the borrower to the title loan provider in the first place.

Most of these fast secured title loan providers will only lend money on a car that the borrower owns free and clear. Most target consumers that have bad credit, that are low income, that are elderly or military.

The way this fast secured title loan is written the consumer does not see the reality of the interest rate and the ultimate cost. While the consumer looks at the 30 day paperwork and sees that she or he is paying back 125 percent of what she was originally lent, the fact remains that figured on an annual basis this brings the interest rate to an annual 300 percent.

What happens more often than not, however -which makes it even worse for that debt-ridden struggling consumer - is that she or he is still badly in debt. The lender helpfully offers to roll over the debt for another month. As of the end of the first month, then, that consumer who borrowed 600, at that alleged 25 percent, owed 750.

Rolling it over puts another 150 on the charges. So now that same 600 has now put the consumer into debt with that lender for a total of 900. What now happens is the consumer is going to struggle even more mightily to pay that back. Each month she or he does not do so 150 is added to the cost.

Unpaid for one year, that original 600 fast secured loan could end up costing that consumer 1800. If a consumer cannot come up with 600 on her or his own, what are the chances she or he can pay 2400 back at the end of the year? The fact is that many cannot - and, for 600, they lose their vehicle.

While we are not suggesting that a fast secured loan is a bad thing, we are saying that the faster you need the loan the more wary you should be about the lender you choose.