What Should You Do If Your Loan Application Gets Denied?

When there’s an emergency, a personal loan or line of credit is there to back you up. These short term loans help you pay off unexpected bills, take on necessary repairs, and cover essential medical care. The only problem is they can be a challenge to get depending on the lender.

Nearly three-quarters of all people who apply for a personal loan have their applications rejected. If you’re one of the sweeping majority of people denied financing when they need it, you’re not entirely out of luck. Here are some things you can do to get your next application approved.

Review your application for mistakes

Most personal loan companies require you to fill out lengthy questionnaires and forms before they’re willing to lend you any cash. Unfortunately, these applications don’t operate with spellcheck, so they won’t pick up on any spelling mistakes that you accidentally type in. Neither will it notice if you mistakenly button mash the number pad while sharing an account number.

If you’re not paying close attention, you can easily leave these errors in when you send it off. If you don’t catch incorrect contact information, banking details, or income data, a lender will likely reject your application.

Go over your application to make sure you weren’t denied because of a simple administrative error. This is the easiest issue to fix!

Check your credit score

Your credit score could have something to do with your rejection. Most lenders will look at your credit history as a way to gauge your creditworthiness — or the likelihood you’ll pay back your loan on time. A low score acts as a warning sign to some lenders, as it suggests you may have had issues paying back loans in the past.

There are a lot of reasons why you may have a low score. Everything from paying bills late to not borrowing enough can lower your credit. However, it’s possible to raise your score with hard work and time.

Except, when you’re facing a financial emergency, you don’t have a lot of time to spare. Luckily, there are some online lenders that provide personal loans even if your score is low. They assess your creditworthiness using other criteria, like your income and employment history, to make sure you can repay what you owe.

For people with bad credit, an online personal loan saves time and cash. Even if you apply when you aren’t eligible, the quick process of online loans means you won’t be wasting days or even weeks waiting for a reply. You’ll receive word quickly, so you can move on to the next possible solution without delay.

If you are successful, sometimes you can get an installment loan or line of credit within one business day — allowing you to pay off urgent bills right away without penalties.

Sweeten the deal with collateral

Your credit score isn’t the only way lenders assess your risk as a borrower. They also look towards your income and down payment (if applicable). If it deems you don’t make enough or you didn’t put forward enough cash up front to cover its repayments, you may be denied personal loan options.

You may have better luck by turning to a lender that offers secured personal loans — or loans that require you to pledge assets in case you can’t repay what you owe. A lender will see the arrangement as more dependable, as they can take your assets as collateral in case you can’t repay your loan.

Alternatively, you can ask someone to be a co-signer. They’ll have to put their name on your loan and promise to pay it back in case you can’t. This is a big responsibility to ask of anyone, so make sure it’s someone close to you that you trust.

Being denied personal loan options in an emergency is frustrating, but it’s not the end of the line. There are ways to get the cash you need. So if at first you don’t succeed, check to see if these three issues are holding back your loan, and try again.