This article is rather long so if you want to see the list we are offering quickly, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page. What we did was use our visitor comments and past surveys to find out which banks actually approved them for loans. This took over a year to put together and we are happy to say that over 90% of borrowers with bad credit are getting approved. This is sort of big deal for us, and we’re thrilled. It was lot of work getting the list together.

Legit bad credit loans are applied for by the hundreds of thousands every day in and across America, but using the Internet to find them isn’t always that easy. Online lenders have an allure because borrowers can research different loan providers for free – an it’s easy. Recently when I was in Palm Springs (Indio to be more exact) my friend had just bought a house for $275,000 from a man from Ohio who had remortgaged his winter holiday home using an online refinance lender – as a result his loan was VERY expensive. The lesson here is that you can find a legitimate lender online, but the APR may be cost prohibited for most borrowers.

Recognizing Legit Lenders

Legit lenders are not always easy to recognize because they don’t advertise the fact. Can you imagine a bank or lending institution advertising that they are the real deal, legit loan provider? I can’t. The best thing you can do is look for the warning signs that the lender is illegitimate, fraudulent, unscrupulous, shady, and down right slimy. There are sure signs of these kinds of loan providers. Listed below are some of the more obvious trademarks to look for in legitimate lending institutions – online OR offline.

Loan Provider Never Asks for First Payment

A legitimate loan officers working for  a legitimate lender will never ask you to make a first payment in advance of receiving your loan. This kind of situation is all too common when applicants who have bad credit ratings are applying for a loan – the so-called lender will take advantage of the borrower(s) desperation and insist on a disbursement up front before the loan can be administered. Then guess what? You guessed it – the loan miraculously can’t be approved and administered for “some reason”, and you are out hundreds of dollars (maybe thousands of dollars).

When a loan provider asks you to pay up front, run out of the loan officer’s office ASAP. These are not legitimate bankers – they’re only slick and shady hucksters who are out to swindle you out of whatever funds you still have left.

Large Up-Front Administration Fees

Don’t pay up-front fees on the loan that they have promised you. If you have a severely damaged credit rating, some shady lenders will ask you to pay a large administration fee up front, long before the loan is supposed to go through for approval. Of course the loan never goes through anyway and you just lose your money again.

Just the same as the old “make your first payment in advance” ploy works, the illegitimate lender has no intention of ever approving and administering a loan in your favor. They just grab your fee(s) which are generally hundreds of dollars (sometimes thousands) and shut you down with a loan rejection. Watch out for these swindlers.

High Opening and Closing Fees

Legitimate lenders don’t charge ridiculous opening and closing fees on your approved loan. Legit lenders will not take advantage of your bad credit rating so they can fleece you. They may take a closing fee on the loan (which I still think is outrageous) when you have made your installment (payment). The fee could be anywhere from as low as $30 all the way up to $200, but if you get approved for a loan of 5000, 10,000, 60,000, or more, then it would be worth the closing fee.

What you have to avoid it sneaky, illegitimate lenders, who charge huge opening fees AND huge closing fees. They will also have hidden fees in the fine print of the loan agreement as well – which we’ll get into later in this piece.

Extremely High APR

Non-Legit lenders will charge extremely high interest rates on the loan over the full term of the financing. Their APR can run as high as 250% on some loans after all the hidden fees are calculated over the entire life of the loan agreement. Legit lenders never charge these crazy kinds of interest on their personal loans, and they don’t take and EXTRA advantage of your bad credit situation.

Payday loan providers are an extreme example as they often an interest rate (APR) as high as 500%! You must avoid these kinds of lenders at all costs. These are really called loan sharks and they need to be avoided at all times and in all circumstances.

A legitimate lender will never charge you more than 15% APR on the life of your loan agreement. Keep this in mind when you are hunting for bad credit loan providers.

Hidden Fees Within the Loan Agreement

This is unfortunately all too common for legit lenders and non-legit lenders. Hidden fees on personal loan products are commonplace in today’s financing markets of the Western Hemisphere and always will be. It’s up to you to carry out due diligence and read the small print in the loan agreement the lender places in front of you on their desk. The problem with non-legit lenders is that they will have different loan agreements for bad credit applicants. They tag on some outrageous amendments to their standard loan agreements used for good credit applicants. These amendments include extremely high “added on” fees that will sink you even further into debt, and ensure the bank(s) lines their pockets and props up their profit margins.

If you truly have bad credit, or the lender “tells you” that you have bad credit, they will insist that you sign a loan agreement with all of these high fees included. Some borrowers are completely unaware that their credit ratings is really not that bad at all – in fact, they allow the bank (or private lender) to carry out “their” credit rating check for you. Illegitimate lenders LOVE it when they find suckers who sign on to a high fee, high interest rate loan agreement when they actually know the borrower will pay off the loan by the end of the full term.

So ALWAYS GET YOUR CREDIT RATING CHECKED independently from an impartial party BEFORE you shop around for any kind of loan product. This way you know when the lender is trying to pull a fast one. A legit lender will never try and fudge the numbers and pull a fast on you regarding your true credit rating. A legit lender will be truthful at all stages of the loan process they take you through, and they will charge a reasonable interest rate, and fees, even if you do have bad credit, and bad debt.

List of Characteristics a Legit Lender Embodies

Here is a quick checklist of the characteristics a legit lender will have, so you can run down their lending criteria and their sales literature before making a mistake with non-legit lender.

• A legit lender won’t ask for any fees or payments up front before loan approval
• A legit lender does not have hidden small print in the agreement in their favor
• A legit lender will decline you if you really bad credit
• A legit lender will not have different APR online than they do “offline”
• A legit lender will check your credit rating with the credit bureaus free of charge
• A legit lender will have a long history in one community of market (one address)
• A legit lender will not have high opening and closing fees
• A legit lender will make sure you FULLY understand your payment responsibilities
• A legit lender will value your return service and help you get your personal finances on track

I hope this article helps you understand what a legit lender looks like, and what a non-legit lender looks like. If you want to learn more about the practices of loan sharks you can read about it in other areas of California Loan Find. Just use the search tools you find at the top of the page. Have a glorious day, and watch those nickels and dimes friend.

Legitimate Lender List from Californialoanfind.com

Here is the list we compiled over the last year. We are updating the list when we find new banks that have given loans to borrowers who have bad credit ratings. We can boast that over 90% of borrowers are getting approved with one of these banks, but we want to make sure you don’t waste your money – we have very good reputation to uphold here at CLF.

Click here to learn more about our bad credit lender list – what to expect, and what the requirements are.