As an Indian, you are under tremendous pressure to perform to fulfil your own expectations and those of others near and dear to you. Further, you want to perform for a demanding society. All these put a heavy toll on your finances and you start overstretching your limits. Perhaps, some of these pressures are genuine such as a medical emergency or the commitment to a home. A significant amount of this pressure appears to be from the marketers of various products and services. In their anxiety to be ahead of competition they offer all sorts of incentives to customers such as you, and you get drawn into taking action and commit your hard-earned money for some product or service.
You are bombarded with a relentless onslaught of offers that you cannot refuse because they are so attractive and doable. Who can resist a ‘fly now, pay later’ offer? Reinforcing your resolve is the unused credit limit on your credit card, a zero per cent EMI offers from marketers, as well as instant price, offers and lucky draws and huge discounts. Marketers also time their offers during festivals and salary disbursement periods. All these acts on you and suddenly you find that you overstretch your finances and unable to meet the cash flow requirements of the purchases you made besides your traditional EMIs for the home loan, the education loan and the car loan. Thus, you walk into a debt trap and find it difficult to get out of.
Actually, the same financial system that gave you all the loans also gives you a way out of the problem. You can avail a personal loan to consolidate all your debt into that loan and enjoy relative peace of mind. Let’s see how a personal loan can help you out.
Typically, a personal loan is an unsecured loan where the lender does not seek any security from you for the loan. The lender extends the personal loan on your income credentials and repaying capacity.
Personal loan interest rates are higher than other secured loans. IDFC FIRST Bank offers personal loans on interest rate ranging from 11% to 19% based on your creditworthiness. You can bargain for lower personal loan interest rates by proving that your credentials are sound.
You can avail a loan ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 20 lakh.
You can repay the personal loan in 3 months or within any period up to 5 years.
You can choose the amount of EMI by evaluating your financial position and the amount of loan you need.
The prepayment option built-in to the loan helps you to clear the loan quickly in the event you come into some windfall funds.
Let’s see how you, a salaried employee, can make use of the personal loan to consolidate your debt scenario.
Take home salary after taxes Rs 1,35,000
EMI for a home loan – Rs. 38,000
EMI for a car loan – Rs. 14,000
Monthly expenses – Rs. 30,000
Total committed expenses Rs. 82,000
Available to spend Rs. 53,000 per month
With these surplus funds, you manage the savings of Rs. 2,50,000 per year to benefit from tax savings investments and health insurance and life insurance.
You have a credit card limit of Rs. 15,00,000 on 3 cards that you hold. When you received the credit cards, you found that it was extremely useful as long as you paid the full amount utilized on the card when it came for payment every month. Soon, he found to his chagrin that he could not pay the full amount but started making part payment and allowed the unpaid amount to carry forward at 3% interest rate charged by the credit card issuer. You have now fully used your credit limit and barely manage to make the minimum payment due. You are wondering how you can get out of this financial quagmire.
One way for you is to approach your bank and apply for a personal loan. With your income profile and personal credentials, you can easily get a personal loan of Rs. 15 lakh. When you input the above details into the eligibility calculator on IDFC FIRST Bank website, the loan credentials are
Amount of loan Rs. 15,00,000
Tenure 5 years
Monthly EMI Rs. 32,689
If you apply for personal loan, you can wipe out your credit card outstanding in one go and also save Rs. 20,311 every month. You will restore your credit card limits and with the lessons learnt you can start using the credit card more carefully and responsibly. With the savings, you can also meet your savings requirement of tax-saving, life insurance and health insurance investments and commitments.
Thus, you can apply for personal loan which when sanctioned can come to your rescue and help you during any financial crisis you may face. It is an excellent resource to help consolidate your debt.