I haven't signed any papers but they are checking into a loan for me. Does anyone here have any good or bad comments about them?

Connie

I called them last week and told them to stop sending me checks that would become loans (at 29%) is I cashed them. I told them about the mail theft problem in my area and that they faced a big risk if one of these checks got stolen and cashed.

Carefully check the rate and terms before you sign. But that goes for anthing like this.

As a general rule Beneficial is more willing to give loans to people who have bruised credit. I should know, I'm one of them.

Typically though, their fees, and interest rates are HIGH. I recently applied for, and declined a mortgage refi with them. Their offer was too far out there for me.

4.75 points (but don't worry we'll roll them into the loan) and 8.75% APR for 30 years. That 8.75% would be reduced by 1/4% each year if all payments were made on time up to a total of 4%. So, after 8 years my rate would be 4.75%. When right now rates are in the 4's with no points at some lenders, but I was supposed to pay 4.75 points to get 8.75%!

I laughed at the guy and hung up. There was a time I HAD to deal with people like that to get a loan, not any more.

Watch them closely, and compare their offers with the "going" rates at other lenders for comparable products. I'd bet you can probably do better.

Darrin

I have tried to do better but we have an extremely high debt to income ratio. Our income is $38,500 a year with credit card debt of $51,000. No one else will touch us. If I could just get some cards consolidated it would make life so much easier. We are not youngsters-husband 44,I am 42,so I should know better. I just made too many mistakes. I am paying for them now!! Everything seems to have caught up to me. :-)

I thought about a second job but I already work 42 hours a week and I really like spending time with my boys before they grow up. The debt will be there -the boys grow too fast.

Connie

If the numbers work -- if you're not overextending yourself -- then go for it. I have been there, done that in that nobody else would touch us. Frankly, if I didn't have them as a safety net at some point I don't know what I would've done.

I've found them pleasant to work with and not a problem. Most of my dealings with them have been with the local office, where there's a person I can reach out and touch (or throttle, as the case may be -- just kidding --) if things go awry.

Going into debt with loan sharks to try to consolidate debt sounds like a bad idea to me. Beneficial has a tendency to really jack up the interest rate when you need it least. I would recommend just doing a snowball.

Yikes! I have used them in the past....The interest rate was soooo high and it took time to pay it off. I had the payments autodebited from my account and the staff was also helpful and accomodating. A simply call at 12:00 pm would yield a check at 3:00 pm. This should be one of your last resorts. Why borrow $1 and pay back $1.50...Check out this board for snowball ideas and ways to work with your creditors. Beneficial simply delays the inevitable....your debts must get paid..

Good luck!

Fifty

My plan is to use this loan to get things consolidated. Then pay off my car by March and then get the Beneficial loan switched to my regular bank at a much lower rate. Right now my bank won't give me a loan because of our debt to income ratio. I have paid off one loan and if I get the car paid off I should be able to get a conventional loan from them by next spring. Beneficial is just to get a lot of small things cleared up until then. I have been over the figures and this plan should work the best for me.

Connie

Connie,

As others have said the interest rates are high, and the checks they send are tempting.

Have you tried your local credit union? I have horrible credit, yet I was able to open a credit union account and get a consolidation loan at 5.99%. They also offered me a credit card at 12.99%.

This may be a better answer for you.

Write down the amount of interest you will pay in 6 months time and stare at it for awhile, make sure this figure is to your liking, If you have exhausted all other avenues and are disciplined enough to pay it off within 6 months, I say go for it.

Remember, Beneficial officers are paid commission on loan sales, so it is to their benefit to keep you going and going and going on the debt treadmill.

A credit union is owned by its members, so they have no quota of loans to write.

Good luck to you.

Best,

Donna

Any good words about Beneficial?

Only this imaginary newscast I keep wishing would be real:

"...And in financial news, Beneficial has gone belly up..."

Don't do business with them. They are horrible. I did a small loan with them, and they screwed it up twice, the "Loan Officer" (cube farm sales girl) was a real "witch" to me when I complained about the insurance that she had added on to the loan after I had said "no" as plain as day, and when I would make extra payments, instead of applying it to the principle (like they said they would), they applied it to the next month's payment. (I lost $120 before I realized they were doing this) I only had the loan for 4 months, before BTing it to a 0% credit card.

I thought about a second job but I already work 42 hours a week and I really like spending time with my boys before they grow up. The debt will be there -the boys grow too fast.


What if you two each took a second job for just one year, and "busted it" (as Dave Ramsey says)? I bet if you sell some stuff, skip vacations, Christmas is tube socks, and just cut back, with two little part-time jobs you could probably pay down your debt by 1/2 within a year.

The problem with "making life easy" (and I should know, because I was an idiot and did this!), is that "making life easy" is what got you into this mess. "Easy monthly payments" is not the way out--it's just a way to get into debt.