Lowest Personal Loan Interest Rates updated Sep, 2023

At all times personal loan will help you sail easily through all expenditures that you are stuck with due to funding shortage. Everything from renovating your house to going for vacation needs money, not necessarily there will be enough money for the same. This is where personal loans come into play. It is essential to consider the interest rates at which these loans are offered, some banks offer low and attractive interest rates while others are too high and unaffordable. Rate of interest is calculated considering various factors by each bank.

The lowest personal loan rates start from 9.60% p.a. and is offered by the Standard Chartered Bank.

There are mainly two kinds of interest rates namely fixed and variable or floating. Every individual can personally choose which type of interest they prefer on their loan amount. Fixed rate personal loan and variable rate personal loan are the two kinds; the first one is where the rate of interest is locked throughout the life of personal loan, this cannot be changed at any time even if the rate falls or goes up over the coming years. The latter is the right opposite, where the rate is subject to market volatility. If the interest rate in the market falls, you will have to just pay the reduced rates and vice versa. While fixed rate is a kind of hedging of market volatility, variable rates are helpful is you are expecting the interest rate in the market will fall.

In addition, all interest rates charged by banks/NBFC’s which Finance Buddha works with follow a written down value principle. For more details on the amortization schedule please click here.

The table below shows the indicative rate of interest charged by various banks. The final rate offered by the bank may differ depending on the profile and other evaluation parameters that a bank might choose.

Though each bank has different ways of charging fees on personal loan, the basic structure is pretty much the same. They will consider all factors of the amount that is loaned, individual criteria and more. Few common fees and charges are listed here.

• Processing Fee: Every borrower will be charged with a non-refundable processing fee, this will be different depending on the loan particulars and bank’s policies.
• Part Payment/ Part Pre-Payment Charges: Most banks offer an option to partly pre-close the loan amount. Say you borrowed 10 lakhs and have paid 3 lakhs till date through EMI, there has been some extra income and you wish to reduce the outstanding amount in your bank. This is when part pre-payment option comes into place. Through this either your tenure to re-pay will reduce or you monthly EMI will reduce. But there are charges applied for the same.
• Payment Delay Charges: An additional charge is levied by every bank on the outstanding amount that is not repaid within the specific date. It is essential to make sure payment/ EMIs are processed within deadline to avoid these charges.

• Income Level and Loan Amount Comparison: The rate is totally dependent on the income level and the company an individual works. This information is compared with the loan amount and they will gauge if you are capable to repay the loan without defaulting. According to the risk involved in your repayment strategy the interest rate varies.
• Loan Tenure: This is another important factor that determines the rate, the shorter the loan in the higher the interest rate will be and vice versa. EMIs are regular and fixed return for lending banks, thus when the return is for long period the rate will decrease respectively.
• Credit Rating of the Individual: CIBIL check is conducted by each bank to understand the credit worthiness of the borrowers. In case of any default payment records, huge outstanding loan, fraudulent track records, banks has every right to cancel the loan or charge higher interest rate. This is the very reason, it is essential to keep a good track record of financials for present and future plans.

There are mainly two types of personal loans: Secured personal loans and unsecured. Interest rates for each of these will vary according to the way it is structured. Secured laon will require a security either a movable or fixed one to lend the loan. In case of default, the ownership of this security will be moved to the lender. In this case the interest rate will be low as they have less risk. Their risk can be mitigated easily with the help of security pledged.

On the other hand, unsecured loans have high rate of interest. The risk involved in default is high. They have no direct option to receive the money without going for legal assistance. Borrower can decide whether to choose secured loan or an unsecured one.

When there is a gap between the disbursal of the first instalment of a loan and from when the borrower starts paying the EMI. The interest imposed by the lenders for this particular time period is known as broken period interest.

Make every use of the above tips and information to reap the benefits of personal loan!