Festive season! Don’t let cash crunch, fuel prices mar your joy; avail this option for financial aid

One doesn’t always have the funds to indulge in festive shopping extravaganzas the way one wants.

Representational Image: Photo: Pixabay

The festive season is just around the corner, and everyone of us are preparing our list of expenses in order to enjoy hassle free festivals. Considering India is a secular country, citizens use festivals as an opportunity to make major purchases, especially during Diwali season. There are massive offers flooded by banks or other companies helping citizens to buy their desired things. It can be anything - weddings, house, jewelleries, vehicle or some even plan to travel with their family making most of the festivals.

A survey conducted by LocalCircles revealed that nearly 78% are affected by the petrol price hike and had started to save their money and also started reducing their discretionary spending like eating out, leisure travel, movies, shopping etc.
Therefore, one doesn’t always have the funds to indulge in festive shopping extravaganzas the way one wants.

So what are your options if you find yourself crunched for cash this festive season? Either you can swipe your credit card or opt for a loan for meeting your financial requirements. So here’s a quick look at which option is wiser and why!

Gaurav Gupta- Co-founder and CEO, MyLoanCare.in said, “Most modern consumers, when faced with the need for some extra cash, choose to opt for a credit card as they already have one in their wallets. Credit cards, no doubt, are an easy alternative to spend as well as to avail short term credit, they require a judicious use to avoid landing up with expensive debt burden.”

Gupta explains, borrowers find it easy to swipe a card but often forget that if the outstanding amount on the credit card builds up, they are faced with very high interest charges of almost 24% and upwards. With such high interest rates, using your card to avail large sums of credit for more than a few days is certainly not advisable.

Further, every credit card comes with a pre-approved credit limit, which in many cases, is based on one’s salary or income at the time of card issuance. This limit is typically enhanced only after certain periods of time. So even if your income has gone up considerably from the time you got the card, it probably doesn’t reflect in your credit limit and that is sure to inhibit your shopping spree!

Another feature of plastic money is that it needs to be ‘swiped’. And while the advent of the ‘Digital India’ campaign has ensured that many merchants across the country are enabled with PoS terminals for accepting card payments, a lot of them still prefer cash.

Here’s why personal loans are better, as per MyLoanCare.in.

Instead of swiping your card this season, consider opting for a personal loan which can be the most economical option for financing your needs in many situations. Personal loans offer you quick and instant credit at fairly lower interest rates starting from 10.75%, which is less than half of the interest rate on credit cards.

Personal loans can be paid in comfortable monthly instalments. This ensures that your monthly budget for any given month doesn’t go into a tizzy.

Traditionally applying for a personal loan was a long and cumbersome process where average time to get approvals used to range from 5 to 10 days. However, today, with the emergence of new-age and transparent online loan marketplaces, you can apply for and get a quick loan within a few hours to a day or two, applying from the comfort of your home.

Additionally, with personal loans you can avail the required amount of credit calculated based on your current eligibility and not be constrained by a pre-defined credit limit.

At present, the leading digital lenders offer the option of flexible personal loans wherein you can get a loan approved up to a limit and pay interest only on the amount utilized within this limit. This makes the idea of taking credit just so much more attractive.

What makes personal loans even more attractive is that the amount is directly transferred into your bank account so you can withdraw it and make cash payments with ease. Shopping at places like Chandni Chowk, Bapu Bazaar or Crawford Market gets so much simpler when you have cash to hand out instead of a card to swipe.

Even in case of digital transactions, the payment for purchases is made through the bank account which is also more secure and less prone to frauds.

This makes it amply clear that be it in terms of the cost of credit, convenience, flexibility and amount of credit, personal loans are winning on all accounts today.

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