Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for March, 2015

Mortgage Rates Tumble to 6-Week Low

The Federal Reserve eased the minds of investors enough last week that mortgage interest rates fell down to a six-week low, according to home loan guarantor Freddie Mac . During the week ended March 26, 2015 the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.69 percent, excluding fees, down from 3.78 percent the […]

Big Banks Continue to Loosen Credit for Small Business Loans

Small businesses are finding more and more success getting loans with large banks while smaller lenders are finding it harder to keep up, a sign of big banks’ ability to keep pace with changing technology. The Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index reported that big banks approved 21.5 percent of all small business loan applications in […]

Credit Card Debt Dangerously Close to ‘Unsustainable’ Level

Americans added $57 billion to their credit card debt in 2014, according to credit card data company CardHub, a 47 percent increase from the year before, with average consumer balances quickly approaching a level that was ‘unsustainable’ during the Great Recession. Total consumer credit card debt rose to almost $180 billion last year, with debt […]

Longer Auto Loans Raise Red Flags

The average length of a new car loan is getting longer and longer, but that might not be a good thing. According to car research site Edmunds.com, new car loans now average a length of 67.2 months – roughly five-and-a-half years – reaching an all-time high. The historical average is closer to 4 years. American […]