What is a loan?
When money is lent to a person or organization, it is said to be a loan; normally finalized by a legal document as it is a binding arrangement between the two. Lending money has been around since it was invented although people and other goods or services have been lent to others for longer but as the majority of these are for money; this is what this article is about. Unlike most other types of loan, those involving cash will gradually be paid back over a period of time previously arranged; the usual repayment method is based around monthly installments but this period can be longer.
Generally speaking when debts are provided by family members, no charge for this service is made but usually the person providing the money needs to be compensated and this is done by adding an interest charge to the amount owed. For instance, some debts repay the interest first and then once this is cleared, the borrowed sum is gradually repaid. The more common type of is where the interest charges are added to the capital sum then the total is divided into equal amounts with a small amount of interest being paid each month.
Although this is the main function of all financial institutions, they do have other functions as well. For both companies and individuals, arranging a loan is a way to increase their cash flow for a regular monthly outlay. many other cash raising methods exist but this is the simplest.
Long term financial arrangements designed for individuals and companies to buy real estate is called a mortgage but it can only be used for this purpose. In this instance, the lender is given security on the money advanced in the form of the title deeds of the house until the debt is repaid in full. This security means that defaulting on the loan may leave the lender with no alternative but to repossess the property; whilst they can reclaim money owed immediately this way, they may also decide to retain the property until a later date.
Even small loans can be secured but this generally only happens when a person has a poor credit history which could be the case of a person buying a car; if the person using the money to buy a car defaulted on the money used to purchase it, the car would be sold to repay the debt. Whilst secured loans can last a considerable time, this is usually as long as it remains possible for the finance company to reclaim costs should they need to sell the item; for cars, this very rarely extends beyond five years.
Unsecured loans are available from financial institutions under many different guises or marketing packages; credit cards, a bank overdraft, even a line of credit for instance, are all examples of unsecured lending. The interest rates applicable to these different forms may vary depending on the lender, the borrower and the type of credit supplied.
Financial companies can be caught out too when they provide cash to a person so they can gain advantage over his or her situation; also known as predatory lending. An easy way to do this is for a credit card company to issue cards to individuals and encourage them to use the cards and then keep them paying these amounts off for a long time because they have such high interest rates. Try to remember what has been written here and you might not have too many problems.
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