If you have decided that you would like to have a payday loan then you might wonder where the best ones are. It would be great if there was some sort of list, best to worst and we could all just use the best one. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that. This is because we all have different ideas on what we think will make a good loan for us and therefore there are lots of choose from and each of us might pick a different one as being the most suitable for us.

Decide what you need

Therefore the first step is to decide what you need by way of a loan. You need to think about things like how much money you need to borrow, how much you are prepared to pay for the loan and what you are looking for in a lender. Think about what is important to you, whether it is finding a lender that is well-known, has good reviews, has a good reputation or has been recommended. It is important to think about which of these is the most important to you as well. This is because you may not be able to get everything that you want so you want to make sure that you are getting the things that you want the most.

Look at what is on offer

It is good to make sure that you know where to look to find out the information that you need. If you want to compare prices, for example, to find the cheapest lender, you may be tempted to look at a comparison website. These might seem really useful but you need to be careful when using them for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they will not include all lenders and so you could be missing out on finding out about lenders that might be better suited to you. They may not include lenders which only sell directly to customer, for example. They also might not include lenders that do not pay very high levels of commission. Lenders tend to pay commission on leads which is why many websites might have reviews, rating and price comparisons. They hope that people will use their sites and then click through the affiliate link and then borrow money and they will get commission. Although there is nothing wrong with them doing this, it could lead to them being biased and more highly rating those that give them more money or just missing out those that do not give them so much. Therefore, make sure that you are using trusted sites when you are doing your research.

Another reason to be careful of comparison websites is the way that they compare prices. They will tend to compare the interest rates. Although this can be useful it may not include all of the costs. Payday loans tend to have an interest rate at an APR value and also fees such as admin fees. Sometimes the interest rate includes the fees and is called that AER. It is confusing as you may not be sure whether the ones that you are comparing are equivalent and even on a comparison website it is hard to tell. Therefore, it can be better to work out the costs for yourself or ask the lender how much it will be and then you will be able to work out which is actually the cheapest. It can also be good to investigate how much it will cost if you miss the repayment. You might confident that you will be able to pay it, but you could find that the cost differs quite significantly between lenders, Therefore, you will be able to compare them. This can be worthwhile because you might end up not being able to pay but also it could motivate you to make sure that you can pay because it is so expensive.

Compare lenders

If you are looking to get a payday loan, you may wonder how to decide how much to borrow. There are different things that you should consider to help you to make up your mind.

The cost of what you need to buy

You need to consider how much you need to buy the item that you are borrowing for. This is easy if you need to pay for a specific thing, perhaps a bill that has come in that you cannot afford to pay, for example. However, it may not always be that simple. If you need food that will keep you going until the end of the month or you need to have enough just to pay for everything you might need, then calculating it will be much harder. Do your best to estimate it as accurately as possible. It is worth noting that everything you borrow will be charged for, so it is best to borrow the least amount that you can to keep the cost down. However, if you do not borrow enough you could risk needing another loan and you may struggle to get one as you should be paying off one payday loan before you get another.

How Capable you are of repaying

It is also extremely important to work out how capable you are of repaying the loan. You need to make sure, to start with, that you are clear about how much you need to repay and when. Your lender should be able to make this clear to you. You will then need to work out whether you will be able to afford this. You should look carefully at your own finances and work this out. You need to think about how much you get paid and whether you will have enough to cover the cost of the loan. You also need to think about what else you need to pay for and whether you will have enough left, after repaying the loan, to pay for all of these other things. Hopefully, you will be able to find ways to reduce your spending on non-essential items so that you can allow for this.

The cost of the borrowing

Every loan that we take out will cost money and so it is wise to find how much that cost will be. This is easy to calculate if you know how much you are repaying in total, as you just take off the amount that you have borrowed from the total amount that you have to repay. If you are still unsure then ask your potential lender, you should be able to find out from customer services. It is good to think about whether you feel that this is good value for money considering what you will be spending the money on. Also, you should compare that cost with other lenders and you will be able to work out whether you think that this is the best lender for you or whether you would like to use an alternative one instead. There are lots of payday lenders and so you should have plenty to choose from. It will take a while to look at them all and compare the costs but it will be worth that time because you could potentially save a significant amount of money. You may also want to compare how much you will be charged if you do not manage to make the repayment as that could vary between lenders as well.

It can be a difficult decision but it is worth some thought. You need to be aware of what you will be spending and whether you feel you will be able to cope with the repayment. This is because if you do not manage to make the repayment then you will be charged extra money. You will also find that you could struggle later that month, even if you do make the payment and this could mean that you may even have to consider getting out another loan so that you can manage. This is not good as it will cost you more money and could put you in the same position month after month. However, you should be able to manage well if you can prioritise your spending. This means to make sure that you are carefully only buying things that you really need and going without those luxuries for a while. This can be tricky and it can feel hard, but it is worth it because we will be able to manage more easily and you can treat yourself once you are confident that your money situation is sorted again. It should not take that long and you will soon be able to stop window shopping and do some proper shopping again with the confidence that you have the money there to spend.