Monday, January 25, 2010

“Taking a personal loan? Remember this! (rediff.com)” plus 3 more

“Taking a personal loan? Remember this! (rediff.com)” plus 3 more

Taking a personal loan? Remember this! (rediff.com)

Posted: 24 Jan 2010 10:19 PM PST

Personal loans enable you to take care of immediate requirements without much hassle.

You do not have to provide collateral or guarantors; you can utilise the amount for any purpose, except speculation. But, before taking one, you should budget your requirements and allocate the expenses to be met with this loan.

The amount sanctioned will depend on your eligibility, based largely on your income. The repayment is monthly and the tenure varies from one to five years. Since personal loans do not require any security or hypothecation of assets, the banks charge higher interest rate compared to other secured loan.

Here is a step-by-step process to be followed for an application:

Get in touch with a lender but first check which bank is offering the best rates and services. You can compare rates with any reputed price comparison site. After listing a handful, get in touch with as many lenders as possible and know their offers. Then, negotiate for the best rate.

Check if there are any special offers. After finalising the lender, their direct selling agent will visit and collect documents supporting proof of income, residence and identity. You may have to produce copies of income tax returns, salary slip, bank statements, ration card, passport, driving licence and other relevant documents. These requirements vary from lender to lender.

Then, a field investigator will visit your home to double-check the facts provided. It is essential that you are present during this visit, else, he could report that the facts provided do not add up.

Once the lender is satisfied with the veracity of your documents, the loan is approved. The amount is then disbursed cheques or demand drafts (DD).

Alternatively, let's say you want to take the loan money through your credit card. How does this compare?

First, withdrawing cash using a credit card can be very costly if you do not repay quickly. Interest rates on credit card loan withdrawals can range from 20-40 per cent on an annual basis.

For most cards, the interest rate on cash withdrawals and credit outstanding for purchases made are the same. But here is the kicker - for the purchases you make through your card, you get an interest-free period to pay back. Cash withdrawals on your card have no such benefits; interest is charged from the moment you withdraw the cash.

And, do not forget the transaction charge, levied on the withdrawal at the ATM. The average interest rate charged for a personal loan is in the range of 12-22 per cent , whereas the average interest rate is 20-40 per cent for withdrawal from a credit card.

Therefore, unless in a very real emergency where you need instant cash, it is advisable to not withdraw cash on your credit card. It is always better to go for a personal loan. It is the fastest of all retail loan products and the interest rates are a lot lesser than those on credit card withdrawals.

The author is with ApnaPaisa.com

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Doing Good in 2010: West Philly Tool Library (Phillyist)

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 10:09 AM PST

The West Philly Tool Library, located at 4620 Woodland Avenue, loans out tools to members to do home maintenance projects, yard work, building projects, all while learning new skills. To collect a personal tool workshop is an expensive endeavor, so the library provides a wide variety of tools with only a small donation for membership. With a collection of 1900 tools, the library needs a regular volunteer to organize the tools, do basic tool cleaning and repair, log in new tools, and help new members sign up. The volunteer doesn't need significant knowledge of tools.

If you are interested in helping the library, contact Michael Froehlich at info@westphillytools.org.

If you would like to have Phillyist profile your non-profit organization as part of "Doing Good in 2010," send us an email.

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NYC trial opens in punk pioneer's slaying (AP via Yahoo! News)

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 12:14 PM PST

NEW YORK – A personal assistant's confession to killing her celebrity real estate broker boss was just a tale concocted to satisfy police, a defense lawyer said Monday.

Natavia Lowery stole from boss Linda Stein — a real estate powerhouse with punk-rock roots — but didn't kill her, defense lawyer John Christie told jurors as Lowery's murder trial opened. She's accused of clubbing Stein to death with a piece of exercise equipment to hide thousands of dollars in theft.

Stein co-managed influential punk rockers the Ramones before turning to real estate. Her clients included Madonna, Sting and other entertainers.

In a videotaped confession, Lowery said she lost control of herself and pummeled Stein with a stick used for stretching exercises after Stein badgered and insulted her.

"She made it up to give the police what they wanted to hear," Christie said.

Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned to death Oct. 30, 2007, in her Fifth Avenue apartment, where she and Lowery had been working. Prosecutors say Lowery killed Stein to silence her about more than $30,000 the assistant had stolen to pay her student loans and other debts.

Lowery initially told police she knew nothing about the slaying — and then blamed it on a masked stranger — before giving her now-disputed confession.

The police didn't know then about the theft, so Lowery "gave a version of events that made it sound like a crime of the moment instead of what it really is: getting caught stealing and killing the person who has caught you," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told jurors in an opening statement.

Lowery's drive to steal was so strong that she used Stein's ATM card to help herself to $800 shortly after the killing and kept using her credit cards for days, Illuzzi-Orbon said.

Lowery's lawyers have noted that her statement came after police questioned her overnight for more than 12 hours, without the attorney her family had hired. She had told police she didn't want the lawyer there.

The defense lawyers lost a bid to keep her confession from being used as evidence. A judge also rebuffed their plan to have a psychologist testify about reasons why people sometimes confess to crimes they didn't commit. But the defense can raise questions about the circumstances of Lowery's confession.

Surveillance-camera video from Stein's building shows no one but Lowery going into Stein's apartment on the day of the killing, before one of Stein's daughters found her body that night, Illuzzi-Orbon said.

Christie noted that the cameras didn't show any blood on Lowery as she left the apartment. He also suggested roofers working at the building could have gone, unseen by security cameras, down a staircase to the service entrance to Stein's apartment, though Illuzzi-Orbon noted that the service entrance was locked from the inside when Stein was found.

The 28-year-old Lowery faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

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Reader views (0) (Evening Standard)

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 04:00 AM PST

People taking out personal loans for small amounts are being charged nearly twice as much interest as those borrowing larger sums, research showed today.

The average rate charged on a loan of 3,000 is currently 19.3%, compared with an average rate of 10.3% for people borrowing between 7,000 and 10,000, according to MoneyExpert.com.

There is also a steep difference in the best buy rates available for higher and lower loan amounts.

Alliance & Leicester currently offers the best rate on a 3,000 loan of 14.7%, compared with a leading rate on a 10,000 loan of 7.6% offered by Nationwide.

The group warned that the lower interest rates available on higher sums may tempt people to borrow more than they need.

Pierre Williams, head of research at MoneyExpert.com, said: "Lenders are not interested in people who want to borrow small sums of money and the worry must be that many borrowers are being forced to either apply for more money than they need or look to unconventional providers who potentially will charge higher rates."

 Add your view

To be fair to banks (hard, I know): a small loan costs the same to arrange as a large one. If the interest rate were the same for a loan half the size, there would be half as much earned on it, which might not be enough to make any profit after paying the admin cost. So small loans have always had higher interest rates than large ones, and (in a competitive market) always will.

- Nigel, London

And in other news: Bear seen heading for wooded area carrying 'Andrex'; Chap living in the Vatican (wearing white) rumoured to be member of RC church.

- Jim, London


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Posted by Rakhma at 4:04 PM

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