Are Secured Loans Still a Safe Bet? By Peter Kenny At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

A secured loan is a loan that is secured against the property, and in effect is the same as a second mortgage. As with the mortgage itself failure to make repayments on your secured loan can result in the loss of your home, so anyone that is considering this sort of loan needs to bear in mind the importance of keeping up with repayments. The nature of these loans means that secured loans are only available to homeowners.

In the past secured loans were treated with some caution by consumers, as many were either worried about the risk of losing their home or simply did not have enough equity in their homes to consider a secured loan. However, house prices in the UK have soared over the past ten years, and this has given homeowners the financial leverage that they need to get affordable finance on a secured basis.

Over recent years secured loans have become more and more popular amongst homeowners, and this has resulted in an increase in the number of people taking out these loans. Secured lenders have been able to offer competitive deals to homeowners, and many people have enjoyed being able to raise the money they need secured against the capital tied up in the property.

Unfortunately over recent months things have changed quite a lot in both the lending and the housing sectors. The changes have stemmed largely from the global credit crunch that made its way from the United States last summer, wreaking havoc in the financial markets and impacting heavily on the housing market. Because of these changes it has become more important for homeowners to consider the pros and cons carefully before committing to a secured loan.

The first thing to consider is the fact that borrowing costs have been rising, and this means that homeowners could end up paying more for a secured loan. Because the rates on secured loans are variable the rate and repayments could go up whenever there is a change in interest rates, and whilst the base rate has fallen three times over recent months reports have shown that lenders have still been charging high rates of interest. These higher repayments could mean that you are unable to manage and could fall behind, and this in turn could mean risking your home.

Another important factor to take into consideration is the fact that house prices have been falling over recent months, and they are set to continue falling over the remainder of this year and possibly over the next year as well. This means that if you take out a secured loan and then house prices continue to fall you could be at increased risk of negative equity, where you owe more on your property than the property is actually worth.

During this current global financial crisis using a secured loan could be considered by my financial advisors as something of a gamble, however, if done prudently and by this we mean making sure you are not overstretched a secured homeowner loan may just be the answer to your financial needs

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