Online loaning companies are starting to become more common and more trustworthy as security becomes better and people become wiser to potential scams.
Today, we’ll investigate EncoreLoan and find out how they work, what types of loans they provide, and whether they’ll be right for you. Let’s get started.
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What is EncoreLoan?
EncoreLoan is a relatively recent company, having been founded just in 2017 in New York City.
Although they are based in the Big Apple, they serve customers across the country thanks to doing most of their business over the Internet. Specifically, EncoreLoan is an online loan marketplace.
In a nutshell, there a platform that offers personal loan options to users, as well as short-term loans that are very similar in terms of organization and interest rate to typical payday loans you can get at physical locations.
Because of its status as an online loan marketplace, EncoreLoan requires participation from multiple lending companies or individuals.
As a result, people are able to obtain loan quotes from several vendors and compare them against one another, as well as increase their own likelihood of getting a loan approved.
Basically, EncoreLoan doesn’t actually loan you money – they provide the tools and location necessary to find and be approved for loans from others.
Both types of loans offered by EncoreLoan – personal or “payday” – are unsecured.
So-called payday loans are just like the kind you could find at brick-and-mortar loan locations, and they are primarily used as advances against your next paycheck.
They are usually needed when you require some fast cash but won’t be paid for another week or two. You take the loan and pay back the amount plus interest once you are paid at the end of the month.
At EncoreLoan, most payday loan offerings have very short term limits and interest rates can vary dramatically.
Personal loans have longer terms and can also be secured for traditionally larger amounts, especially since you don’t necessarily need them to cover your bills for the immediate future.
Depending on the loaner you contact through EncoreLoan, your terms can range from as short as several months to as long as many years; amount also dictates your loan limits.
When using EncoreLoan, you can get personal loans up to $15,000 and payday loans up to about $1000 except in very rare circumstances.
What Can You Use the Loans For?
You can use any of the loans you get through EncoreLoan for whatever you need, even if you pick up a payday loan.
No loan agreed to under the EncoreLoan umbrella will have limitations on how you can spend the money.
Of course, it’s always wise to use your loan money for what you need it for so you can successfully pay back the loan when the time comes.
Generally speaking, payday loans are great for short-term monetary requirements and most people actually use them as their name suggests.
Personal loans are much more flexible, both in terms of their time limit and the amount of money you can receive.
As a result, personal loans are great for consolidating debt, starting a business, or paying for a vacation or a wedding retreat.
Payday or Short-Term Loans
EncoreLoan has a broad collection of lenders underneath its umbrella that are very flexible with their credit requirements. In fact, some lenders don’t even need a credit check and will approve a loan based on other factors.
Others might approve anything because they only give out a very small amount of money. You’ll still need to provide your income and place of employment in most cases.
Payday or short-term loans also come with much higher fees and higher interest rates compared to personal loans.
At EncoreLoan, most of the agreements you can find have interest rates of around 300% to 400% depending on the exact loan.
Keep this in mind when seeking out a loan arrangement, especially when you think about how much you make per month.
Who Can Use EncoreLoan?
Ultimately, EncoreLoan offers flexible money lending options and solutions for just about everyone.
There are two broad loan types that provide agility and versatility and enable the company to provide services to those with a wide variety of needs.
Personal loans are better for larger amounts of money or for longer-term arrangements.
These also require more extensive credit checks and may take longer to become approved because of their higher amount.
Short-term loans are great for those with fair or poor credit or anyone who just needs a little cash for a short while.
Although EncoreLoan has a network of diverse lending entities, they don’t loan amounts above $15,000 in most cases, even for their personal loans.
This fact, along with their inclusion of payday lenders, suggests that EncoreLoan is primarily targeted to those with low credit or other short-term borrowers.
While you can use EncoreLoan if you have a good credit score, you’ll probably get more value for money and a better deal (along with higher maximum loan limits) at other lending marketplaces.
The EncoreLoan network is spread throughout the US, although they don’t have borrowers in specific cities in New York, West Virginia, and Washington DC.
Their interface will allow you to check out your available lenders according to your state.
Overall, EncoreLoan is best used by those with poor credit and who need short-term cash with trustworthy lenders.
Many who have poor credit and are desperate for cash will often turn to lending institutions that tack on additional fees and trap them in a cycle of constantly getting new payday loans to pay off previous loans.
Because each lending organization is filtered and reviewed by the EncoreLoan website, you won’t face any sudden fees that you aren’t aware of in the initial agreement.
This isn’t to say that the short-term payday loans are particularly friendly to the borrower – because some certainly are not – but you have greater control over what you’ll end up eventually paying. This peace of mind will likely be very worthwhile to many.
Requirements for Loans
Unlike some other online loan marketplaces, EncoreLoan doesn’t have an extensive list of requirements or responsibilities beyond the basics.
Typical loan agreement caveats are present in just about every contract, including:
- Borrower must make at least $1000 per month
- Borrower has to have a stable income, although a pension or Social Security account
- Borrower must be a US citizen or a permanent resident
- The borrower has to be the age of the majority in the state of the lender, which is generally 20 or below
- Borrower must have a valid Social Security number and a state-issued driver’s license or ID
- Borrower has to have a checking or savings account – this is for the purposes of direct deposit
- The borrower has to have minimum credit score requirements, although some lenders have very low requirements
Additionally, many of the short-term loan agreements under EncoreLoan limit the amount you can borrow based on your income. This practice is typical for all payday loan institutions, however.
How Much Does EncoreLoan Cost?
There aren’t any fees or costs to use the EncoreLoan website. Instead, you will need to pay the agreed-upon interest rate and any fees that the lender specifies upon your borrowing of their money.
The downside is that the EncoreLoan interface doesn’t have any easy to see information about the fees or rates of participating lenders.
You’ll have to initiate a conversation and get the details yourself, which is a bit inconvenient and makes EncoreLoan seem like a glorified meeting place.
They do provide some security measures that make them more using in a pinch, however.
For instance, EncoreLoan will never charge you or require you to pay a lending company upfront in order to obtain a loan. All payments will be due upon the contract’s completion.
This can be extremely helpful if you have no money to your name and need some cash just to get through the end of the week.
It’s different from other short-term lending organizations that sometimes require a fee or down payment before they disperse the rest of the loan amount.
What Loan Costs Can You Expect?
The exact loan costs confined at the EncoreLoan website will vary greatly, especially since they work with a variety of lending institutions. But industry standards can still give you some expected rate.
For instance, personal loans will likely have 5.99% to 35.99% APR, likely along with an origination fee between 1% and 6% of the total loan amount.
Luckily, most lenders will deduct the origination fee from your loan proceeds when they disperse the rest of the cash.
Certain lenders can charge extra fees, like application or prepayment fees, although this is individual and can’t be predicted with any accuracy.
Be sure to read every loan or lender option available on the EncoreLoan website to determine the actual quality of your deal.
For short-term loans, your interest will technically be represented in a big fee that is due at the end of the agreement period.
For instance, borrowing $1000 might require you to repay $1020 in two weeks’ time.
Alternatively, you can repay the same amount over an entire year, although the $20 per two week period will stay, resulting in an ultimate fee of $520. This interest rate is, therefore, 520% by the time your payment is due.
How to Use EncoreLoan
Using the EncoreLoan website is incredibly easy, which is another attractive quality that makes them a good choice if you don’t have lots of experience with loans and have bad credit.
They take online applications all day every year, and those applications are then reviewed by various lenders who will propose lending arrangements to you over time.
They can respond at any moment, so you’ll want to check your email or your account with EncoreLoan fairly frequently if you need cash fast.
Because the entire system is online, you’ll need to provide lots of personal information when setting up your profile and application page.
This includes typical things like your date of birth, name, the loan amount you are after and what you’ll use it for, your address and contact information, ID examples, your estimated credit score, and often your monthly income and paycheck frequency.
You’ll also likely need to provide your bank account information for the purposes of loan disbursement.
Depending on which loan agreement you take up, you might need to provide extra information to finish the application process.
The good news is that application finalization and loan disbursement happen very quickly. If your application is accepted by a lender, you can get an approval in real-time and sign documents literally seconds afterward to get the loan flowing.
In theory, you can apply to EncoreLoan and get a cash disbursement to your account within a single day if you’re lucky and your loan application is attractive to lenders.
Once your application is approved, EncoreLoan processes the proceeds and deposits them into your bank account by the next business day. This may be less than 24 hours depending on when your application is accepted.
EncoreLoan provides a little extra security by acting as an intermediary between you and the lender in this way. Keep in mind, of course, that they won’t help you if you take out a poor loan and have fees that you can’t truly afford to pay back.
EncoreLoan Pros
- Allow loans for just about any purpose
- Provide two types of loans for different timeline needs
- Works with many lenders who will approve loans even with bad credit
- Cash disbursements happen quickly
- Collateral payments are not required for any loan through their marketplace
- Multiple lending agents mean each application has multiple chances for acceptance
- No additional costs for using the site
EncoreLoan Cons
- Screen for lenders is not very detailed, so you have to discover extra fees during the agreement
- Some short-term or payday loans come with very high extra fees
Reputation
The Better Business Bureau has rated EncoreLoan as a B+ organization. In a nutshell, BBB ratings are opinions of the Better Business Bureau about how the business interacts with customers and the kind of service you’ll receive.
These ratings are compiled both from user reviews and any other information that BBB investigators are able to discover about the business.
Having a BBB rating of B+ is great for an organization like EncoreLoan, which typically services short-term borrowers and those with poor or fair credit.
Many loaning institutions who primarily deal with customers in great financial need have bad customer reputations and are often seen as predatory.
That EncoreLoan is not seen in this way is a great thing, and is another indication that they’re more trustworthy than many of their brick-and-mortar competitors.
Conclusion
Overall, EncoreLoan is a great choice if you don’t have great credit and only need a relatively small amount of money below $15,000.
Some of their agreements do come with terrible interest rates or fees, but this is part and parcel for payday loaning institutions.
Meanwhile, many of their personal loan options are agreeable and generous.
They provide good customer service and security. Their greatest benefit is that they let extra pairs of lending eyes see your application compared to driving around town and visiting physical stores.
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