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Companion Credit Union Personal Loan – Fixed Rate

Posted March 22nd, 2011and last modified January 9th, 2012

The Advantage Of Fixed Rates

Generally, there are two different kinds of interest rates that you can get on your loan. Your options are fixed rates, or adjustable/variable rate loans. A fixed rate loan locks your loan in at whatever the interest rate happens to be when you’re approved for the loan, and a variable rate loan will have an interest rate that will vary throughout the life of the loan as the Reserve Bank raises and lowers their interest rates.

If you’re on a relatively fixed budget, variable rates can seriously mess up all your financial planning. A small jump in an interest rate can destroy your ability to make the payments if you’re already struggling or cutting it close as it is. This could mean the difference between paying and defaulting on your variable rate personal loan.

Fixed rates, however, provide the peace of mind of knowing exactly what your payment is going to be, every month, no matter what the Reserve Bank does. If your budget doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room, or you’re not willing to do without the things that you do spend your money on, then this is probably the way you should go.

With a fixed rate loan, your interest rate will be locked in for the entire life of the loan – up to seven years – no matter what happens at the Reserve. If you signed the papers at 9%, that’s where they’re going to stay. Your monthly payments will stay the same, and you never have to worry about what’s going on in the world of variable interest rates – at least not with this loan.

The Advantages Of Companion Credit Union

The benefits of working with a credit union are numerous and well documented, but in case you’ve never heard, we’ll go over them real quick. A credit union doesn’t operate like most financial institutions and banks. Traditionally, the latter two are required to post high profits to keep their shareholders happy, pay their overhead, etc. This isn’t so with a credit union, because credit unions don’t have shareholders. Instead, they’re owned mutually by all of their members, and the money they do earn is used to turn around and invest back in the members’ experience with the credit union. The profit is used to build new branches, provide better services, lower rates and fees and upgrade technology for security or service.

Most credit unions generally have lower rates and fees when compared to other banks and financial institutions. Some of them even provide extra (free) services to their members. The biggest advantage to Companion Credit Union and their Personal Loans is probably the ability to make unlimited extra payments, or pay the loan off any time you like, without the worry of penalties and fees.

Most lenders will be so worried about their bottom line that if you pay off a fixed rate loan before the term is up, they’re going to hit you with expensive extra payment fees or early pay off penalties. This is because they calculate the profit that they expect to make based on you paying off your loan according to schedule, not early. If you pay your loan off early, it’s seen by the lender as a loss.

This isn’t so with Companion Credit Union because they’re not looking to make a profit. They exist to pass savings on to you, and if you can pay your loan off early and save money doing so, then they’re doing their job correctly.

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Related posts:

  1. Companion Credit Union Fixed Rate Car Loan
  2. Companion Credit Union Personal Loan – Variable Rate
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