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Where to get small loans at reasonable rates?

1,402 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Agnzona
schwack schwack
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AG
I have a tenant that is looking to get a loan for approx. $4K to consolidate 2 high interest credit cards that he got & ran up in college - cards that he no longer uses but wants to pay them off & make only one payment. He is in his early 20's, a school teacher/coach in his 1st year at the high school here. He's had no problem paying his rent on time with us. He deals mostly in cash - who knows why, but at least he's not using credit cards - and said when he went to the bank they told him his "ratio" was off due to his student loans? I don't know.

He frequently comes to us for advice as he was raised by his grandparents. Very nice, respectful young man. He says he's learned his lesson on credit cards. There is a small bank in town & I suggested that he go talk to them, open an account there, etc. & maybe they would do it. I don't have any contacts there.

My heart says to loan him the money, but my head says not to get involved other than try to find him a good option so I'm going with my head on this one.

Any ideas?

Edit: On a re-read of this, I don't want it to sound like he's expecting us to loan it to him. That is not the situation at all. He mainly just asked if we knew any banks that do small loans.
TennAg
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A local credit union may be helpful here. I'd definitely stay out of it as you're doing.

If the loan isn't doable, he'd be smart to get a short term job on nights/weekends to make some cash. Pizza driving, etc.
double b
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AG
If he owns his car, I suggest Aggieland credit union. He could secure a loan for 1.9%.
schwack schwack
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Hmmmm. Will look into it. I think he still has a car payment.
Colt98
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AG
If you have the money line him the 4K at 8%. Ive done this for some of my employees and some folks around my town if I know where they work and they seem to be a hard worker. I get them to sign a promissory note and if they were to default(which I've never had anyone do that) I would file on them down at our court house. Knock on wood I haven't been burned yet. Most people that are trying to get the life and finances in order do not want to have a lien against them. I've had one guy over the years that we had to file on and 8 years later he when he tried and refinace his house our lien popped up and he had to pay us before he could do his refi and we were paid the original note plus interest, which added up pretty good over those years.
sts7049
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AG
lending club?
schwack schwack
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AG
We've talked about it Colt, but if things turned sour, we'd be on the double hook: no payment on the loan & probably no payment on the rent.

We really try to keep our distance personally from our tenants while still being personable. This guy just seems to need advice about how things work occasionally. Both of our parents have had rental properties thru the years & when they got friendly with their renters that's when late payments & other over-steps started happening. Hate to say it, but when my parents rented to people from their church, friends of friends, etc. those were the worst. I think they knew that my parents "didn't really need the money" & felt that they could hit them up with all manner of hard luck stories because they were "good people".

I am going to suggest he look into a teachers credit union or something. I also suggested that he buckle down & pay one off while doing minimum payments on the other, then repeat.
BigPuma
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AG
sofi
schwack schwack
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AG
Thanks, BigPuma. I will give him that info. Looks promising. The highest rate they can charge in Texas is 9.99% which I'm sure would be an improvement.
Greeze06
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AG
He needs to look for credit card balance transfer offers. 12 months with 3% fee, effectively 3 % interest. Month 11 find another one and repeat.

Do not miss a payment.
Agnzona
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Credit unions are now doing all kinds of personal loans $500 to $20k 6 months to 60 month terms.
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