Hey everybody.

My girlfriend needs a personal loan for a medical procedure she'll be undergoing. And she needs the money relatively quickly.

I ran her credit a while ago and it's decent. She's only 23, but has no lates or collections or anything bad like that. But, she has young credit. One line of credit, a credit card from 2002, has a limit of 50k and a very low amount of debt on it. Basically, her dad put it in her name to help her build her credit. She uses it for groceries and emergencies and he pays it off.

She just leased a new car, too, so I don't know what sort of affect that has on credit.

Anyway, any insight would be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

See if she can get a personal line of credit through her bank. Better interest rate than a credit card.

 

I take it she doesn't have health insurance or this isn't something insurance will cover? I don't need to know what the procedure is, but what kinds of money are we talking?

Providers, including hospitals, will also look into payment plans. Might want to look at that.

 

Boob job?

 

Definitely personal line of credit, generally lower interest rate than anything a credit card company will give.

 

Tell her to check with the plastic surgeon (assuming here! ). Some of them have a company that "finances" for them.

 

It's a dental procedure, but not totally cosmetic. I don't believe that they have payment plans.

I was wondering more specifically if anyone had experience with the actual process of getting a personal loan?

If she goes to a credit union, fills out an app, are there lending requirements that we can be aware of prior to walking into the bank? Credit is one of the obvious ones, so is employment. But are those the only two factors?

 

I called my bank on the phone to apply for the credit line. They just asked me where I was working. Waited about 2 days for the app to process, then I had the money.

 

Every bank's requirements for approval are different. Typically, lenders will limit debt to income ratios to 40/45%. You can get an idea of this before she ever goes to the lender.

Be aware that most lenders charge a higher rate for an unsecured loan with terms of 24 to 36 months.

In my previous post, I mentioned financing at the doctor's office. It wouldn't hurt for her to ask them. A lot of finance companies are beginning to target doctor's (anything that could be considered cosmetic) offices and their customers. The rates on these loans might be less than the credit union.

Tell her to check around on rates and terms.

PM me if you want to discuss specifics.

 

As stated above, several banks like Chase are financing at the doctor's office for any type of procedure - most common right now is cosmetic but it can be used on any type of procedure, though I'm not sure if dentist's offices are covered yet.

If she has a bank account, first step would be to go talk to a loan officer at a branch. Generally, unsecured loans receive a discount if you have an account with the bank, and there may be additional discounts if she does automatic payments from that account.

If that doesn't pan out, there's always the internet. There are several name brand loan broker sites which will allow banks "to compete for your loan" . You could also go directly to the banks' websites and shop around, but note unsecured loans are often prescreened and the non-prescreened rates you'll see on the web won't be the best.

Also, if she has a card with a 50k line and little debt on it, I'm sure she's receiving promotional checks from her credit card bank (or maybe her father is??). These will often give the best rates on short-term debt (say, 0%-1.9% for 6 months) as well as long-term debt (3.99% life of loan). The only risk here is the default language which'll put you up to your purchase APR or worse should you be late.

As far as the process, it'll boil down to FICO, DTI (debt to income as stated above, but it ranges up to 55% commonly), and verifiable income. Do your homework before applying though, as multiple applications will be a neg. on her credit history.

 

Like Scribby mentioned, ask about a payment plan... Dentists are used to payment plans since they do expensive stuff like braces all the time...

 

Can she just ask her dad and save all the interest on the loan?