Personal loans are one of the most preferred types of loans that borrowers prefer to apply for. One of the biggest reasons is that borrowers are not required to pledge any kind of collateral to the bank.
Now, while personal loans can be very useful, an applicant needs to be careful while picking a loan plan so as to clear the loan without any hassles. This also involves choosing a lender that offers favorable loan terms.
Here’s how you should do your research while applying for personal loans online:
Maintain an Excel sheet
If you have decided to opt for a personal loan, instead of consulting the internet right away to look for the right option, you must first maintain an Excel sheet that tracks the following details of personal loans offered by various banks:
- Personal loan eligibility criteria
- The total loan amount that can be availed
- The bank loan interest rate
- Value of your EMIs (Equated Monthly Instalments)
- Whether the bank offers a balance transfer facility (Yes/No)
- The personal loan’s repayment tenure
IDFC FIRST Bank, for example, offers a total loan of 50,000 USD at a 10.49% interest rate, offers a balance transfer facility, and a completely digital application procedure. This is how you could update these details in your Excel sheet:
Consult EMI calculator to determine your EMIs for each lender. This will help you get a better understanding of how much you’ll have to pay every month and which lender is offering a more feasible repayment option.
Contact the bank’s customer service team
A good test of whether the bank offers reliable customer services is by contacting their customer service toll-free number before applying. You could inquire about the details of the personal loan and address any questions that you might have.
If you find the responses prompt and satisfactory, you can choose this bank’s personal loan over those offered by other banks.
Read online about the bank’s mobile banking app
You must check whether the bank offers a reliable and technically sound mobile banking app before applying for a personal loan. Since most of your repayments would be carried out through this app, you must check its reviews online before applying for the loan.
Use the bank’s EMI calculator
You can know the value of your personal loan’s EMIs in advance by using a personal loan EMI calculator like IDFC FIRST Bank’s. Doing so can help you plan for the repayment of your personal loan in advance.
Check if the bank offers personal loans online
Finally, you must check if the bank offers personal loans online. A digital personal loan application procedure is very convenient for the customer since it also eases the repayment procedure to a great extent.
If you follow these 5 points while researching banks that offer personal loans, you will not face any difficulty while applying for the loan or while repaying the personal loan.