Beneficial Financial

[loudrumble]

Has anyone had any good experiences with Beneficial (HSBC). I was going to take a personal loan out to pay off my credit cards but I read that this will lower my FICO score. I dont see how though because im not doing a consolidation loan, just a personal loan. I read it is a Consumer Finance Loan??

[magyar123]

It will lower your credit score as you're eliminating (I suppose) several good accounts by paying them off and replacing them with one account.

[Never_Again]

Instead of rolling the credit cards onto a personal loan, can you step up with a higher payment, and just knock them out?

I do not picture a loan from Beneficial saving you money on your interest rate. It does depend on the state that you are in, but generally (in my state) beneficial (Household) loans are 18%. Even going from 28 to 18% is still high.

However, to answer your question, it should not harm your score (other than the new tradeline) as you will be reducing your utilization on your revolving debt. Just do not charge the cards back up again. This is what most people do, which is why I do not recommend anyone roll credit cards over. Just pay the things off.

[loudrumble]

I dont own a home. Will they still lend to me?

[StartingOver08]

Your score will drop because of the type of loan you are seeking is a personal finance type loan. The credit scoring model takes a look at the types of credit you have too. Personal finance loans are somehow weighted to bring your score down (don't know the factor, but if you have them they show on the score factors as a reason to keep you from getting additional credit or making the additional credit at a higher rate). It is better to pay the existing cc's you have then to get tied up with Beneficial. You can make payment arrangements with the existing cards - you can reduce the existing rate. Talk to the hardship dept (if you are having a hardship).

[gophermn]

I searched all over for a personal loan and HSBC did pull through for me. Unfortuantley I had to add them to my CH7 petition but I am not here to dog-them. They were nice people and the interest rate seemed to be within the range of other lenders.