If you’re like many people coming out of their lockdown quarantines, your emergency savings may be at an all-time low. The average American worker lost about $9,000 over the course of the pandemic, and this loss can be a hard one to handle. It could mean you’re utterly unprepared should disaster strike and an unexpected emergency expense joins your budget.
In a crisis, FinTech (or Financial Technology) offers a swift solution to your financial problems. This portmanteau is short for a growing number of financial services that offer online loans.
What Are Online Loans?
An online loan is simply a loan you apply for, receive, and repay over the Internet. This broad definition encompasses a wide variety of loans, and each one comes with a unique purpose, eligibility criteria, rates, terms, and conditions.
Before you apply for an online loan, evaluate why you need to borrow money. The answer to this question can help you determine which kind of online loan is best suited for your needs.
The loan specialists at MoneyKey make it easy to compare your options. If you visit Moneykey.com/payday-loans-online/, you can see a direct comparison of payday loans and installment loans, two popular online funding options. While they may be able to help you compare these types of loans, they don’t offer payday loans to new customers in any state.
Moving the Borrowing Experience out of the Bank
It wasn’t too long ago that you would have called up your nearest bank branch to make an appointment with a financial advisor about borrowing money. During your interview, you would speak with the advisor about your options and fill out an application in their office.
Nowadays, you don’t have to make the trip to speak with a person face-to-face, nor do you have to take time out of your day to ensure you can make an appointment during typical business hours.
An online lender can assess your needs and accept your application on their website. Powerful tech backs these sites so that these lenders can efficiently receive, process, and store your application.
With social distancing measures still in effect worldwide, being able to stay home comes as a considerable perk. Not only will you eliminate the risk of spreading the virus, but you’ll also neatly side-step many of the safety measures put in place at traditional banks thatmay slow down the process.
Automating Several Steps of the Process
Some of the technology used by online lenders is an AI that quickly reviews your application. Although there is a real human that oversees this function, automating this step speeds up the process. In some cases, you may find out if you qualify within minutes.
By comparison, the traditional in-person method can take significantly longer. You may be waiting to hear if you qualify several days after you hand in your application. And this says nothing for the amount of time it takes to get to your bank and sit through an interview.
All told, it could take a long time to borrow money the old-fashioned way. And in an emergency, you don’t have any time to spare; you need to handle your unexpected expense quickly and efficiently before late fees compound your problems. So, the next time you’re fielding an unexpected emergency, check out what FinTech solutions can do for you.