When we look at the field of Native American loan companies as of July 15, 2014 it becomes quite obvious that most of these lenders do not really matter for most consumers. They charge too much money (their interest rates are too high) or they do not offer much in terms of dollars, or both.
If you add together the tribal lenders that have 30% interest rates on a 14 day rolling basis (which is way too high) and the lenders that offer small dollar loans (which is less than $1K) then you realize there are less than 20 out of the 200 tribal loan companies that qualify as a company that should be considered for a loan.
Which Native American loan companies matter to you as a consumer? The companies that actually provide a service at a decent price. Getting a loan is no different than other business activities, like buying a pizza or renting a car, the whole point is to get the best service or product at the most reasonable cost.
For some reason this concept gets left behind by the majority of consumers when it comes time to apply for a loan. The idea of shopping around somehow is replaced with a form of desperation that assumes that just because you are offered a debt product means that you have to jump on it and sign-up right away.
That's not a good idea, just as with any other service you would buy (spend your money on) you should look around at what the competition is doing and how well the company you are talking to stands up against that competition.
Some Native American lenders will charge 35% on a rolling 14 day basis. There aren't too many of these, however there are at least 10 companies that have this super high rate. Then there are probably 80 to 100 tribal lenders that have the de facto industry standard of 30% which operates just as the 35% rate does, for each 14 days that the customer has the loan outstanding they will owe 30% on that amount. This is the interest rate, also known as the finance charge or finance fee, and also known as the profit for the lender. These interest rates are the main way these online lenders make the vast majority of their profits.
While the 35% and 30% rates dominate the Native American lending business, but there are some companies that stand alone from the high cost crowd. Below are some of those tribal lenders that matter more than the rest since they have such a lower cost for the consumer.
1) Mobiloans, which is a well known and very important tribal lender that provides a 10% interest rate for any borrower that takes out a loan of at least $500 or more. If they borrow less than $500 the interest rate will be 15% which is still not that bad. This company has a great website, they are quite flexible with their loans because technically they provide lines of credit and they provide loans of up to $1,500 to an individual borrower.
2) Plain Green Loans, which is one of the lowest cost lenders in the tribal community. They have a $3,000 loan that has an APR of only 59% which is very cheap when that 59% is worked across the 26 bi-weekly pay periods inside a calendar year. This is an example of how other tribally-affiliated lenders should operate. While some tribes have lending companies that have APR's of 700% or 800% it's obvious that it is still possible for a tribe to have good profits with a much lower rate.
3) RadiantCash, which does not have a really good rate for new customer. But for borrowers who tend to borrow multiple times in a year this company makes a lot of sense. Once a borrower reaches their 11th loan (and while that might sound like too many loans for some borrowers please realize that some borrowers are taking out loans literally every single month) and it is for those customers RadiantCash will make a great deal of sense. Once the borrower reaches their 11th loan the borrower will be charged 1 1/2% in interest for every 14 days they have the loan outstanding. And that is not a typo, the firm literally charges 1.5% which is unprecedented among all tribal lenders. This company realizes that once a borrower gets to the point that they have already paid off 10 prior loans on time it shows the lender just how successful and responsible the borrowers is, and can be trusted to pay down their debt.
There are some other tribal lenders that are above average and that are worth looking at, such as Spotloan (very flexible with their repayment dates) and Great Plains Lending, which has a $3K loan just like Plain Green Loans. But the catch with these lenders is that they charge more in interest than the other companies. Clear Creek Lending is another company that has a good loan amount, which is a maximum of $2,500 but the problem is they have an APR that approaches 400% which doesn't do a whole lot to make a consumer want to run out for their debt products.
The three tribal lenders above, Mobiloans, Plain Green Loans and RadiantCash are the best options when it comes to going into debt and not going broke while taking on that debt. Consider any of these three companies when you are looking for a Native American loan.
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