Leadpile’s Blog

I found this article interesting about payday loans maybe being offered at our nation’s banks. A few of the nation’s largest banks — including Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco, and Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati — are now marketing payday loan-type products, with triple-digit interest rates, to their checking account customers. Really it is something that should have happened a while ago, or maybe now this is the perfect time to really give the industry a little better image. We have all discussed the need for these short term loans, however now that our banks will be looking at offering these types of loans, what does that do to the future our payday loans? Is this maybe the beginning of the segway into installment loans? What does something like this really mean?
Leadpile will probably be watching something like this because this could open up some doors on who to work with, but also how is this going to affect the future of the payday loan lead generation business? I think this is a GREAT thing to hear about regarding payday loans! The rest of America is waking up to the need for this sort of short term loan. It’s about time!!!!!!!

When someone needs some quick cash, most think of getting a payday loan because it is quick and no credit check is required. However, in recent years, credit unions have tried to come up with an alternative to a payday loan, but some seem to be similar in many aspects. Does this mean that our nation’s credit unions will be getting put under a microscope like most payday lenders? The unfortunate thing is that many of these consumers are needing “emergency” money, so places like credit unions are trying to jump in and help out their customers with creating these short term loans. There is certainly a need, or credit unions would not look at creating their own version of a payday loan, but really what is the difference? Is there some way all lenders can come together to create one “short term emergency loan” that can help our nations consumers get out of trouble? Leadpile hopes so, because we really want to continue to be able to generate leads of those that are looking to be connected with someone that can help them. Sounds like the credit unions and the payday lenders have a common goal >> help consumers! Right?

Emergencies often arise causing people to need cash quickly. Many individuals need quick access to money to pay hospital bills, car-towing charges, or for emergencies. These individuals often times go online for information regarding an installment loan.

An installment loan is a loan with a fixed number of payments. They are somewhat similar to payday loans but with installment loans you pay fixed payments back to the lender until the loan is completely paid off.
Some Installment Loans come with the following benefits:

• You can get up to $12,000
• Installment loans offer convenience. The reason for this is because you are able to budget wisely. You know the exact amount of your payment and the exact day that it is due.
• It doesn’t matter whether your credit rating is not perfect.
• During the repayment period, there is typically a steady decrease in the amount of interest as you make payments.
• Installment loans are readily available and easy to access

Typically, there are two types of installment Loans: Secured and Unsecured.

• Secured loans – These are offered by financial institutions against collateral.

These loans attract a lower interest rate charge as compared to the unsecured.

• Unsecured loans – To qualify for these loans, one must have an indication and proof of current employment. These loans attract a higher interest charge compared to the secured ones.

LeadPile is the best place to buy installment loan leads. LeadPile’s installment loan leads have all the information that a company needs in order to process an installment loan request. LeadPile’s advanced and innovate system allows clients to acquire leads that are tailor made with specific filters.

PDL Industry Blog pointed out some lenders are thinking about implementing installment loans as a boost to their existing Payday Loan Business. These new potential regulations regarding capping the interest rate, do not appear to affect larger banks offering short term loans. The larger banks APR tends to be below the capped APR that the state is looking to implement, however the payday loans APRs are the ones that would be feeling the effects of the potential rate cap. This could be why some payday lenders are looking at new types of “loans”, where some of them have longer terms and possibly a little higher loan amounts. These sorts of changes could reduce the overall APR that the consumers are seeing. The results = the CONSUMER is happy because they got the much needed loan… the LENDER is happy because they could provide this service to the consumer… the STATE is happy because it meets all their requirements of the lending regulations.

It looks like the LeadPile Exchange will blow out another vertical in very short order! Stay Tuned…

The economy is bad, and consumers are needing help with their mortgages and debt. Leadpile realizes this, and so does our advertisers/lead buyers. There are loan modification and debt companies out there looking to help more consumers. Leadpile is looking for those people to be matched up with our advertisers to provide these services.

Leadpile Lead Exchange makes it quick and easy for lead publishers.  Here are the offers you can get up and going in minutes.  This is a great way for these consumers to fill out the required information, and be matched up with those that can provide the service to them!

In recent news the Fair Isaac Corporation is rolling out an updated FICO score.  A FICO score was created back in 1989 to help consumers and businesses determine consumer’s credit worthiness.    All 3 credit reporting agencies (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian) will be implementing this new scoring.  

Some things that are changing with the newly updated FICO score:

1.  Ignoring of small collection accounts

2.  One credit problem forgiven

3.  Changes to authorized users and how it affects your credit score

Things you will want to now pay attention to with regards to your score:

1.  The more credit you use in regards to your balances versus credit limits will affect you more now.

2.  Don’t close $0 balance accounts now.  Keep them open and don’t use them.

3.  You will be penalized if the lenders close your accounts.  To prevent this, charge one time per month to keep activity going if you want to keep the account.

4.  Diversify what credit accounts you have active.  For instance, have some installment accounts (IE- CAR loans etc) AND revolving credit.  This shows you are able to maintain both types of credit.

Fair Isaac is hoping these changes will help with getting a better depiction of credit worthiness.  Lenders will like it more because there is going to be a more precise score of their credit.  Consumers will like it more because if that score is higher, that makes the cost to get more money (loans and new credit) cheaper.  The better your FICO score is, the more credit you have available and the lower your rates will potentially be to borrow money.  This seems to be a win win situation for consumers and businesses.

Leadpile Lead Exchange wants to help consumers and businesses to be connected with regards to any financial matter.  This new FICO score will most likely promote more consumers to want to take a deeper look at their scores and how they can maybe get them higher.  Credit repair companies are probably a really good option to look at to help do that.

The holidays are here and more and more of us are getting more and more in debt trying to prepare.  The unfortunate thing is many consumers were already in a bad situation with their debt, and now the holidays are going to add to the mess.  There are various options out there to help consumers with their debt situation. Debt consolidation, debt settlement and credit repair are a few services that help consumers with resolving their debt situation.

Debt Consolidation:  Working with a company that helps you consolidate all your credit cards into one payment.  A lot of companies can even work with the creditors to pause any future late charges or excess fees from being added to the current balance.

Debt Settlement: Working with a company that works with the creditors to get balance settlements.  A certain percentage of the total debt amount is paid, versus the whole amount and the balances continuing to get larger.

Credit Repair: Working with a company to help educate and direct you in the right direction regarding your credit.  There is a lot of information to know about your credit report and how to really optimize getting the most of your credit report.

According to Consumers Affairs, here are some things that determine if you need help with your debt:

There was a recent report by Channel 15, that brought up a study done by Vanderbilt University. In this study it pointed out, “Payday loan customers who are approved on their first application are more likely to file for bankruptcy than those whose initial applications are denied, according to a study out of Vanderbilt Law School. ” I am not sure I understand where this is going as far as trying to point out a bankruptcy filing rate with those that took out a payday loan. The people that could not get a payday loan probably did not qualify for the loans because of some sort of income issue or other specific requirement the payday lenders require. I would think this sort of individual had more potential of falling behind and contemplate bankruptcy, don’t you think?
Leadpile Lead Exchange has been generating payday loan leads for some time now. Blaming or relating  bankruptcy filing rates to those that have taken out a payday loan, and not those that have been approved for one, just does not make sense to me. Does this also mean that someone who took out a new auto finance loan is more likely to file bankruptcy, versus someone that applied for an auto finance loan and was denied? There are people that have a lot of outstanding past due debt that I would say is more of a correlation to filing bankruptcy, versus someone who took out a payday loan.  Those that did not manage their debts properly, had an expected loss of job, or those that had a major financial change in their life are more of a cause of someone filing bankruptcy. Payday loan = bankruptcy?  Payday loan = what else?

Help with repairing your credit is something pretty much everyone could use a little assistance on. With a tough economy, Americans are needing to worry about more important things like paying their next electric bill. However, when that time comes where they have the ability to get help, credit repair is a great option to look at. Credit repair assistance can be a very informative service, that once you learn what makes up your credit report, you will be able to use the valuable information in the future.
Leadpile Lead Exchange is currently generating a large volume of credit repair leads. These consumers need the help now and are looking for someone to provide that service. Knowledge is power when it comes to your credit report, unfortunately not everyone is in a position to have great credit. Knowing we have a large demand for this lead type, and the large amount of consumers wanting assistance, Leadpile has rolled out some text links/landing sites for lead sellers to use.

www.countrywidecreditfix.com
www.creditfixnationwide.com
www.mycreditjump.com
www.personalcreditassist.com
www.uscreditfix123.com

If you are currently not working with Leadpile to purchase or sell credit repair leads, I recommend it!

Credit cards are a way of life for most Americans. According to Time.com, in the last 10 years credit card balances have gone up 75%, yet consumer’s wages have gone up only 4%. Increased balances and the number of credit cards consumers have, has allowed credit card companies to reap the rewards for years.  These credit card companies have always survived in tough economic times because they were able to generate lots of revenue from things such as late fees, however more and more consumers are now facing charge off. The charge off rate for default consumers is expected to reach 10%, which is double what the rate has been for the past 10 years. If there are more charge offs, that means credit card companies will be in the RED, because defaults/charge offs will far surpass the revenue they are bringing in from things such as late fees. So, what does that mean will happen?
In the case of American Express, they just became a bank holding company in order to receive some low cost funds and a piece of the $700 billion bailout. In the case of Citigroup, they layed off 10,000 employees and will begin imposing higher interest rates on it’s 54 billion cardholders. With other credit card issuers, there is bound to be some increased interest rates passed down to the cardholders and increased fees. The only way to really avoid the effects of these credit card issuer’s hardships, is for consumers to manage their money better where they avoid any additional late fees and also look at not incorporating any new debt. The only option I can see is looking at debt consolidation or debt settlement to avoid getting in a deeper hole. Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a lot of debt leads where consumers need help and need help now. Hopefully, they can ride the wave before any sort of credit card “bubble” bursts and they are affected in an even worse way.

It is official…

Leadpile Lead Exchange is officially generating the lead type of Loan Modification.  There are so many consumers out there wanting help with the mortgages they are in, and we are now connecting those consumers with companies providing the service.

The sad part about this lead type is that the some lenders that actually issued the loans are the ones now trying to offer loan modification options.  I know this is happening because I received a letter from my original lender, however I am not delinquent on my mortgage or not about to experience any “life changing” experience to cause me to need a loan modification.  My guess is they are just sending out notifications to everyone, in hopes that there are some that took out a loan with them that are falling behind at this point. Why were things like this not offered to the consumers at the time they got the original mortgage?  We all know there are some consumers who just could not wait to get that cash out on their refinance, however there are a lot of consumers that were maybe put in loans they had no business being put in.  Our lead marketplace is here to try and match up consumers with service providers, no matter what the circumstances were.

The information we are capturing for the loan modification lead type:

1.  Full contact information

2.  Monthly Income

3.  Credit rating

4.  Home value

5.  Mortgage balance, interest rate, and adjustable, fixed, or interest only interest rate

6.  Consumers monthly obligations

7.  Have bankruptcy filings been started already

Recently, while researching the loan modification lead type, I came across some very interesting (and helpful) information about loan modification. This is something that Leadpile Lead Exchange currently is not generating, however we are currently doing the much needed research to roll out this new lead type.
After speaking with a representative (Souban Houn) who is working in the industry, here is what she informed me that are some “events” that would make a consumer potentially eligible for loan modification.
Generally, loan modifications are considered by the lenders under the premise that the borrowers experiences some sort of hardship that resulted in their falling behind on payments. For instance:

Adjustable Rate Mortgage Reset- Payment (uncommon, but we will see more lenders accept this in the future)
Illness
Loss of Job
Reduced Income
Failed Business
Job Relocation
Death of Spouse or Co-Borrower
Death
Incarceration
Divorce
Marital Separation
Military Duty
Reduced Income
Medical Bills
Damage to Property (natural disaster or unnatural)
Overall, these are “events” that could happen to anyone unexpectedly. Therefore, this seems like a good alternative to going into foreclosure. The unfortunate thing is, some went into these mortgages already in a very tight situation financially, and nothing major has happened to them. However, now the rate is about to adjust and that just makes the difference between paycheck to paycheck TO falling months behind on the mortgage. Tough situation for both lenders and consumers.
Stay tuned for this lead type to be rolled out in our marketplace. There are a lot of consumers needing this assistance, and a lot of people like Ms. Houn looking to assist these customers (if they can).