In today’s financial climate, most of us know how difficult some months can be to cope with. We’re usually pretty happy sailing and making ends meet when WOOSH! something hits us out of the blue and suddenly our carefully planned budget is worth nothing. If this has happened to you, then it is a safe assumption that an emergency cash loan has crossed your mind.
Most people think of an emergency cash loan as an instant decision or payday loan. A quick cash injection so they can get through this contingency and can worry about paying it back later. Right? If this is true for you, STOP! I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that this is a dangerous path to take and may very well put you in a much worse financial position later on.
Please try and think of all other alternatives before proceeding. The most obvious way to alleviate the current problem is to discuss the problem with friends or family. If you are lucky enough to have people around you who are in a better financial position than you are, are generous and care about you and trust you enough to lend you the money, then please take the offer. You may have to swallow your pride, but this is by far the best solution (besides winning the lottery, of course). Friends and family won’t charge you interest or give you a strict time limit to pay it back, but don’t take advantage of them. Kind gestures are hard to find these days, so give them the respect they deserve and return them as soon as you can. They also won’t confiscate any of your belongings to sell at auction and will reclaim some of the money you owe like a loan company would if you miss your emergency cash loan payments.
Another alternative, although much more difficult to face than picking up the phone and applying for an instant loan, is to sell some of your personal items. For example, the price of gold is at an all time high and most jewelers would give you a very good price for any redundant gold item you no longer wear. You may be emotionally attached to the article, but in today’s situation you need to face reality and realize that any assets you have should be used before going into serious debt due to a late payment on a emergency cash loan. You have to try to think long term here. See the bigger picture.
If none of these options are viable, by all means consider getting an emergency loan, but heed this warning before. If you miss a payment the interest you will have to start paying will be phenomenal. I mean, totally crazy. What now seems like such an easy way out could easily turn out to be the worst thing you’ve ever done if you don’t take your payments very, very seriously. Look around you, read all the fine print, and know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Be sure to look at the APR you will be hit with if you don’t make the payment. It will scare you. If you still want to go ahead, make the refund with plenty of time to spare. Do not leave anything to chance. Do not leave it for tomorrow, return it as soon as possible. Remember, the loan company does not want you to make the payment. They want to bite you with huge interest rates. This is how they make money with emergency cash loans. Don’t let them sink their teeth into you.
