What Personal Loan Term Length Should You Choose – Whether you need a loan to renovate your house or you have some other expenses you want to meet, taking a personal loan may be a good way to get around bills. You can use a personal loan for different reasons, and you can select a loan term that you will take to repay the loan. But what personal loan term should you choose?
There are varieties of personal loan terms, usually one to seven years or more, you can select from. Before taking a loan, it is advisable to consider the loan term since it impacts your monthly payments and long-term costs. While deciding on a personal loan term, it is advisable to choose a term that strikes a balance between the affordability of your loan monthly payment and creating a limit on your overall interest costs.
Longer personal loan terms usually result in lower monthly payments but higher interest charges throughout the loan repayment, while shorter personal loan terms result in higher monthly repayments but lower interest costs.
Common Personal Loan Term Lengths
Personal loan terms and lengths depend on the lender, and they are generally one to seven years or more. Some personal loan lenders offer loan terms as long as 12 years if you borrow a large sum of money. Short-term personal loans last for 3 years or less. A personal loan with a term length longer than three years is considered a long-term loan.
After you have taken a personal loan, you are generally required to repay the loan in a fixed monthly installment during the duration of your loan term. This means that every month, you are required to repay an agreed amount of money and interest rates until the loan is fully repaid.
However, do not forget that your loan interest rate may change depending on your selected personal loan terms. Most times, lenders tend to charge higher rates on long-term loans and less on short-term personal loans. This is a reason why your cost of borrowing may increase in the long term.
How to Choose the Right Personal Loan Term Length
Selecting the right personal loan term length depends solely on your budget and loan repayment goals. To identify the right loan term for you, follow the below steps.
Step 1: Take into consideration your current and future budgets.
Before taking a personal loan, create a budget and make sure you can afford to repay your loan completely on time. Check out your monthly cash flow by summing up your income and removing your expenses. If there are any anticipatable expenses likely to occur and change your financial situation, take them into note too. Because personal loan terms can last several years, you will want to select the term that will work well for you now and in the future.
Step 2: Analyze the loan’s monthly payments.
Most lenders offer multiple loan-term options when it comes to personal loans. Analyze the details of every lender’s monthly payment term. Identify the one that will be a year-term, a three-year term, a five-year term, or longer, depending on what you want.
It can be tempting to get a one-year loan term to make repayment faster and get you out of debt on time, but if the monthly payment is higher than you can afford, getting a short-term loan is a bad idea. However, there are different benefits to getting a short-term loan payment, but ensure that it won’t keep you up at night.
Step 3: Evaluate your long-term interest cost.
In this last step, do not forget to evaluate the total interest cost on the loan when comparing personal loan terms. If you decide to go for a long loan term, you will remain in debt for a long time, and you will pay more on the overall interest cost. While the short-term length may come with a lower interest cost, causing you to make fewer payments on the overall interest, But your monthly loan payment will be higher than that of a long-term loan.
What Personal Loan Term Length Should You Choose?
Before agreeing to a personal loan, carefully decide what loan term is best for you. A short loan term should be good for you if:
- You can pay a higher monthly payment for the loan.
- You want to save on interest rates.
- You want to repay the loan on time.
A long-term length should be good for you if:
- You can’t afford high monthly repayments for the loan.
- You need a more flexible loan repayment term.
Whether you decide to go for a long-term loan or a short-term loan, it is advisable to make the right decision to give you a better repayment term.