Applying for a personal loan? Here’s how to get it at an affordable rate!

A personal loan allows you to fulfill your emergency and non-emergency needs easily provided you complete the SBI personal loan eligibility or any other bank you have applied to. However, before you set out to avail SBI personal loan you should aim to get the loan for as affordable as you can. Interest rate is one of the important factors that could significantly affect your EMI outgo. If the interest rate is nominal, you can repay the loan amount stress-free and with a high-interest rate, the same loan amount could cause you to face a debt trap. Hence, it is important to compare interest rates offered by different personal loan lenders.

  1. Go online. Compare. Repeat: Do your research prior to visiting the bank or checking your SBI personal loan eligibility. Nowadays there are so many financial aggregate websites that can help you check and compare the interest rates of various lenders online. This makes the whole process simpler. Once you find the lowest SBI personal loan interest rate, you can check the particular lender’s criteria to see if you qualify for the personal loan. 
  2. Check your pre-approved offers: Several lenders provide pre-approved offers to their current and past customers. As these offers are based on your borrower profile, they frequently have the lowest personal loan interest rates and the borrower can easily fulfill this SBI personal loan eligibility.  
  3. Find seasonal loan specials:  Some of the lenders offer periodic offers that typically come around holiday times and have the best interests to offer.
  4. Check your credit score: Maintaining a high credit score, whether it comes from CIBIL, Experian, or any other credit bureau, is the surest method to get a low SBI personal loan interest rate. A credit score demonstrates your credit behaviour to a lender and indicates your likelihood of repaying a loan. For instance, lenders are confident that you have experience with credit and have made on-time payments in the past if your score is above 750. In case you don’t have a credit score, start establishing your credit history to fulfill the SBI personal loan eligibility. 
  5. Check your existing debts: Check your debts to see if you still owe any loans before submitting an application for an SBI personal loan. They may include car loans or anything else.  In case you do have the ability to repay the personal loan while issuing the new loan, this will be taken into consideration by the lender. Typically, lenders will only approve personal loan applications if your FOIR, or fixed obligations to income ratio, which is calculated by dividing your total debt by your monthly pay, is under 30%. By paying off part or all of your debts, you can meet this ratio and receive a personal loan with a low-interest rate.
  6. Try to meet or exceed the lender’s requirements for eligibility: Every borrower must fulfill the SBI personal loan eligibility conditions specified by the lender in order to get a loan from them. The eligibility is usually concerned with your earnings, past and present employment situations, age, and other factors. The majority of these requirements are there to evaluate the borrower’s ability and stability to pay back debt. When you fulfill the eligibility criteria of a bank, you can get a personal loan with a reasonable interest rate. In fact, you have a better chance of getting a low rate if your salary meets the lender’s requirements and you don’t have a lot of debt.
  7. Utilize employer-related deals: Do you know your employers might have tie-ups with certain lenders that you can benefit from? To find out if you can apply with such a lender to acquire an SBI personal loan with a lower interest rate, inquire with your HR department about this. Such offers are made to reputable MNCs and other public and private companies in order to facilitate employee financing.
  8. Leverage your existing relationship with lenders: When you apply for a personal loan with a lender who is familiar with your profile, you can get better interest rates. This might be a bank where you have a salary account or an NBFC where you’ve previously gotten a loan. Even if it wasn’t a SBI personal loan, this strategy still works. Make sure, nevertheless, that you have a solid history with them and have paid off any outstanding debts on schedule. You may be able to negotiate special terms with the lender owing to your relationship with the lender.
  9. Opt for the right personal loan amount: While the personal loan is issued quickly, don’t be tempted to apply for a higher loan amount. After all, it’s a debt burden in the end. Prior to applying for a personal loan, draft your budget and estimate your future expenses and then apply for a loan amount you can comfortably repay. Before sanctioning you a loan, the lender will assess your repayment capacity by checking your previous loan records and how you have managed money in the past. If you request more than you need, the lender might take you as a risky borrower and might reject your loan application.

Note: Remember that personal loan interest rates fluctuate since they depend on a variety of internal lender policies as well as external financial policies. Whether the lender is a bank, NBFC, or 100% digital lending app may also affect how they evolve. Before you apply for a personal loan, be sure to carefully select your lender and to review all applicable fees and charges. The cost of a personal loan tends to be increased by all of these factors.

Conclusion

With the help of the aforementioned tips, you must have got an understanding of how to choose the lender with the most competitive rate. No matter who you borrow from, the aforementioned advice can help you acquire the lowest personal loan interest rate. No matter whether you need SBI personal loan to finance your wedding or medical needs, it is possible to get an affordable interest rate provided you know the factors that could help you get the same. The only drawback here is that you have to delay financing until you come across a low-interest-rate deal. So, it is preferable to wait for such a deal and take advantage of low rates when they are available if your need for money is not urgent. Another point to keep in mind is you should avoid submitting loan applications at once since this will damage your credit score.