Guaranteed online personal loans are also known as payday loans or bad credit loans. These are usually short term loans offered to people who need a “quick fix” to help them cover their expenses between paychecks. While these loans are certainly offered in large amounts, most borrowers don’t need an enormous amount of money. Unlike a mortgage loan or a loan for a new car, these loans are usually used to cover a rent check, utility bill or pay for groceries when on hand money is short.
There are plenty of “brick and mortar” locations to offer you short term loans, but many states are passing legislation against their high interest rates. This has caused a huge explosion of guaranteed online personal loan companies to set up shop on the Internet. Of course, not all of these companies are legitimate and you need to be very careful about sending your information over the Internet. Here are a few tips to help you decide which companies are legitimate and which companies are simply trying to gain access to your personal information.
1. Always look to see if the loan company has “regular” stores as well. If they have “brick and mortar” locations in addition to their online operations, they are probably perfectly legitimate. Still, though, if you want to be sure that the business won’t share your information, you should take the time to travel to the location that is closest to your home.
2. In the absence of “brick and mortar” locations, make sure that each of the finance companies you consider has a physical address. Post Office boxes are not the same as a street address. While you aren’t likely to travel to visit this street address, it is more trustworthy than a post office box. Should fraudulent activity take place, you at least have an address to give to the authorities.
3. Make sure that, if you want to, you can conduct business with any guaranteed online personal loan company over the phone. If the company does not have a customer service line or will not conduct business over the phone as well as online run away. Any company that refuses to do business offline is probably not legitimate.
4. Research the company. Check with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of your state and the state in which the loan company operates (even online businesses need to register with state authorities). If you can’t find listings for them or business registrations for the company, do not share any of your personal information with them–not even your email address!
There are plenty of legitimate guaranteed online personal loans out there, but there are also a lot of scams. The best way to make sure that you don’t get hit by a scam is to do your research. The more research you do on a particular company, the less likely you are to be burned by them.
