Advantages and drawbacks of each type of lending
Personal loans and
credit cards, should they be used intelligently, can be great ways to finance your wants and needs. As personal finance author Greg McFarlane writes on Investopedia.com, credit in general grants us temporary access to other people’s money, and for a time, it is a win-win for all parties.
“The lenders get interest, the borrowers get leverage and the economy grows. What’s not to love?” he said. “Without credit, capitalism would stagnate.”
But which lending method is better: personal loans or credit cards? Let’s look at some of the high points and low points of each.
Personal loans
This type of credit is unsecured, meaning there is no collateral involved. Because this is a higher risk for the lender, as there is nothing of which they can take possession in the event of default, interest rates are fairly high. And because you will have a balance to be paid from day one, you are paying that interest starting the moment you sign on the dotted line. Still, these interest rates are typically lower than those of most consumer credit cards, giving personal loans an advantage there.
Another advantage of a loan is that it comes with a set term during which you will be repaying it, and a set amount to pay, which helps with budgeting. At the same time, credit card terms are either longer or unspecified, allowing for lower, although inconsistent, payment amounts.
“Many personal loans have a payback period of no longer than 60 months, or five years. Credit cards tend to amortize your payment over eight to 10 years, resulting in a lower payment over a longer time,” said debt adviser Steve Bucci of Bankrate.com.
Credit cards
While credit cards do come with inherently high rates — so high, in fact, that the president and Congress had to artificially cap those rates from outside the free market — for the first month after you purchase something on the card, you are technically getting a zero percent interest rate, McFarlane says.
“Should you choose to take 30 days or longer to pay for an item you bought on a credit card? Well, that’s when you’re failing to take advantage of the inherent benefit of the method of payment,” he explains.
Furthermore, credit card companies often offer a grace period for payments. That means you have more than a month to come up with enough money to pay off your balance and avoid being charged interest — that’s at least two pay periods to gather your own money and use it to pay off the money you borrowed.
Also, not having to wait for paperwork approval when you need or want the money, as you do with loans, is yet another way your credit card acts just like cash (except in plastic form).
Exceptions to these details exist when you are talking about business loans or credit cards, or about personal loans obtained for use of credit card consolidation. Regardless of how you are using your means of credit, make sure you are looking carefully at the terms of the agreement. Let us help you choose the method that best suits your needs, and then take full advantage of its benefits.
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