Have you thought about borrowing money for sometime now, like for your child’s tuition fee, mortgage, or maybe to buy something important that you think you can’t delay it anymore, or to start a business? I’ve avoided borrowing money for years now and it really did me good because I was able to plan and control our finances better. But I also will admit that we started from scratch and borrowed money from relatives and availed cash loans when we were starting our family life. Thanks to these people and money lending institutions, we’ve started using the money we had to invest on things that we can eventually earn from.
So borrowing money is not bad as long as you don’t intend to do it forever. If you do so, there’s a hundred percent chance that you will be stuck to where you have started.
And because inflation hits our country hard these days, here are some of the sources that I’ve used in the past and some I have read about that can help you borrow money with low interest rates. The lower the interest rate that you’ll get, the higher the chance that you will be able to save more for the next payments, until you are able to pay your debts in full.
- Government Lending Institutions
The first on the list will be the loans that can be availed by different government agencies such as SSS, GSIS, and PAG-IBIG, depending on where you have a membership of. Because they are initially established to help the people, they are the ones who have the lowest rates and have flexible payment terms, even restructuring programs that have low interest rates as well.
- Coop Loans
There are different cooperative loans that can be availed, again depending on where you have a membership of. If you are not aware of it, there are different kinds of coop loans – housing coop, health coop, labor coop etcetera. Unlike banks which are operating for profits, coop loans are for the financial benefit of the members.
- P2P Lending
I’ve only heard about P2P (point-to-point) transport but now, I’ve read that there are such things as what they call P2P (peer-to-peer) lending. P2P Lending is an online service where businesses and lenders meet and transact without a middle man. The source says that usually the businesses offer money for higher interest rates but borrowers get easy cash, but since it’s a virtual marketplace of lenders, borrowers can actually decide on which ones are the easiest to pay.
- Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is best for people who want to borrow money to start their business. These are online platforms where entrepreneurs and business investors gather and pool their money to help a business owner. You will need to pitch your business ideas and the “crowd” will decide to give you funds.
- Alternative Lending
Because of the increase of small-medium-enterprise owners, the need for alternative lenders also increased. These are fintech (financial tech) companies that use technology such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning and study financial patterns to lend money and help people start and grow their business.
Again, borrowing money is not wrong especially if you are planning to use it to make yourself financially better. But not all low interest rate lenders are credible or even legitimate. Aside from looking only at lowest numbers, make sure that you do your research and rigorously vet your lenders or investors. Secure access to online lending options that will allow you to compare and decide wisely.
