Choosing a long term loan deal thats right for you takes some careful thought and planning. When comparing and choosing loan deals, many people fall into the trap of thinking that the lower the APR deal, the cheaper the loan will be overall but thats far from being the case.
Firstly, when considering a loan thats going to run over many years, its important to take into account factors such as how much youre looking to borrow and whether you want a secured or unsecured loan. Unsecured loans will usually carry a higher APR than a secured loan to reflect the greater risk to the lender but, for smaller amounts of borrowing, the fact that they are usually paid off quicker means that the cost of borrowing is likely to mean an overall lesser repayment total than if you were repaying the loan over a longer period.
The secured loan route does have its advantages in that if youre looking to borrow in excess of 25k and wish to repay that over more than 10 years, the interest rate is going to be lower as the loan is guaranteed against your property so theres less risk to the lender. By spreading out the cost of repayments over a much longer period, this might suit somebody...