ARTICLES
A Financial Helping Hand
If you find yourself struggling ever more to meet the demands of rising utilities bills and general living costs, there is an alternative to risking your life savings on winning the lottery or scoring big at the races. Whether you need a small-sized handout just to keep you temporarily on track with your finances, or if you are after a larger sum to help you buy a car or house, you might want to jack in the ideas of betting and instead think about getting a loan.
Most high street banks and building societies offer a wide range of personal and secure loans, which require various checks on your credit rating, and usually demand a few guarantees of repayment with regards to your financial history. And whilst nobody wants to sink into further debt during these economically turbulent months, a reliable loan from a secured banking agency could end up halving your credit bills.
So how to ensure that you don’t end up borrowing money from a bank that’s about to go under? Whilst recent developments in the financial sector have implied that no business or industry is safe from decline, there are a few easy pointers to follow which should guide you towards making the safest choice. Who realised that so many British (and indeed, international) accounts were guaranteed by Icelandic companies until the island’s recent economic collapse? It pays to know who your lender connects to, and how their back-up financiers spend their money, so that you can assess them with regards to current economic standings.
One company worth keeping an eye out for is Santander. This Spanish group already has an English equivalent in the form of Abbey, but has also recently acquired Alliance and Leicester, another high street name now bolstered by the security of one the world’s top 10 banks. Alliance and Leicester can offer both personal and secured loans to both new and existing customers, with adjustments made for those already with mortgages or as home-owners. You can find out the expected cost and instalment projection for your borrowing by using the company’s online personal loans calculator or talking to an advisor. Wherever you go, whatever loan you choose, make sure you are confident in your lender: recent media coverage has shown us what happens when that relationship sours.
