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    Categories: Useful Tips

Are Car Title Loans a Good Idea?

1970 Oldsmobile Delta 88 © Greg Gjerdingen/CC BY 2.0

Easy and quick, but extremely perilous loan from an asset that borrower already have. Is it even worth it?

Well, car title loans are never a good idea, but you will obtain the cash if you desperately need some. In fact, these loans are not designed to be paid back – lenders want you to remain in debt for life.

They Don’t Want Your Car, They Want You Paying Interest Rates, Fines, and Penalties

You think they would be happy to repossess your car because they gave you so little for it. Wrong. They don’t want your car because they are successful lenders, not successful dealerships (unlike BHPH dealerships). The car is a useful asset, but fund-seeker’s contract is even more useful. You have to pay not only enormous interest rates but also fines and penalties if you want to prolong the terms (and even if they had repossessed your car already). It is called financial slavery. Moreover, they are counting on stupid and desperate clients, who don’t understand the risks and pitfalls of the deal. In the long term, such clients bring more profit than reliable ones. If you’re familiar with loans, confident in your actions, have a clue about your income and expenses, you may take a risk. Just be ready to pay inflated interest.

If There Are No Other Options

This way of getting money can be recommended only if there’s no choice. Consider other financial instruments or simply borrow from relatives and friends, if they are willing to help you. Sell something useless like the photo with an Elvis Presley’s autograph on it. Sell the car to a dealership and buy a new one, cheaper. Find a job for the night. There are other ways, albeit more sophisticated, to raise money without getting into whopping debt.

Legitimate Financial Scavengers

Some may wonder, why such loans are even available legally (not everywhere though). According to investigators from The New York Times, the effective rates in loan agreements can reach up to 500 percent; the average customer of the title loan company prolongs the loan eight times; one in six people lose their vehicle to repossession. It is a gruesome statistic, which affects more than one million people every year.

Choose wisely.

Curtis Farrell: