Archive for July, 2006




It is quite true that every businessman strives to expand and grow his or her business. However, making this dream true is quite tough, as this dream requires a lot of efforts and financial resources. Since most of the newcomer business owner faces various problems in arranging finance for running their business smoothly, lenders and financial institutions are offering special business loans, so that these business owners may achieve the desired level of success. In fact, business loans are a good way to arrange funds for meeting day to day and long term requirements of a sapling business. At present, banks and financial institutions are offering business loans to every kind of business. For that reason, not only sapling but well established business is also getting their business expenses financed through these loans. In fact, these loans are helping business owners to put their business thought in a more prolific manner, as financial shortfall is not restringing them from making any crucial decision. When it comes to selecting an affordable and reliable business loan, most of the business owners prefer to go for secured business loans. In fact, these loans are a suitable finance manager for managing every major and minor financial requirement of an organization.

Once the business owner has sufficient funds to meet his or her business requirements, he or she can easily fulfill the dream of expending the business. Since money is the basic requirement for every business, ever business owner needs to secure a financial solution that may enable him or her to execute every business plan properly. Secured business loans are one of those effective financial resources that give a business firm financial baking. With these loans, a business owner can fulfill a wide range of business requirements right from financing a new business venture to making investment.

Secured business loans are pledged against any high valued property. Basically, these loans demand machinery, business premises or plant as collateral so that the lender may recover the loan amount in case of default payment. With these loans, the expenditures of a business organization can be covered; these expenditures involve salary of staff members, furniture, building rent, transportation cost and may other day to day and major expenditures. Therefore, if you are planning to start a new business or want to expand the existing one, then these loans can prove to be the best financial help for you.

Usually, secured business loans carry lower interest rates, as the risk factor is covered by the collateral. However, if you are worried about interest rates of current business loans, then do a thorough analysis of the current financial market, as it will help you in finding out the best loan deal with a reliable lender. In fact, internet is the best way to get the most updated information about available financial option for you business. Therefore, if you are looking for a reliable financial solution for your business, then these loans can prove to be a good option for you.






Forget everything you thought you knew about the benefits of taking a variable-rate mortgage instead of locking in for the long term.

A new study suggests the security of a five-year mortgage costs little or nothing beyond a riskier variable-rate mortgage, providing you get a jumbo-sized rate discount.

“Interest costs on discounted closed five-year mortgages have been close to, and often lower than, those of variable-rate mortgages since late 1996,” senior Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. economist Ali Manouchehri writes in the study.

Homeowners have made variable-rate mortgages hugely popular in the past few years in the belief that you can save on interest costs by pegging your mortgage rate to your lender’s prime lending rate. As the prime rises, or as has generally happened in the past few years, fallen, so goes your mortgage rate.

The prime rate at the major banks is now 4.5 per cent, while the posted five-year rate at the big banks is 6.15 per cent. In just one year, the variable-rate choice would save you about $1,700 on monthly payments toward a $150,000 mortgage amortized over 25 years (assuming a level prime rate).

Historically, you would also have saved a lot. The CMHC study shows that five-year mortgages taken out from 1993 through 1998 would have cost anywhere from $50,000 to $5,000 in additional interest paid over the term of the loan (the example is based on a $100,000 mortgage amortized over 25 years).

The flaw with this analysis is that it doesn’t reflect real-world mortgage pricing. These days, very few people take out a mortgage without a sizable discount off the posted rates at major banks.

For that reason, the CMHC’s Mr. Manouchehri decided to compare discounted five-year mortgages with discounted variable-rate mortgages. Incidentally, five years is the most popular term by far for fixed-rate mortgages at about 59 per cent of the total.

The size of the discounts Mr. Manouchehri applied was based on the difference between posted major bank rates and the best deals available from other lenders. For five-year mortgages, he used a discount of 1.25 of a percentage point; for variable-rate mortgages, it was 0.4 of a point off prime.

For five-year mortgages taken out between 1993 and mid-1996, the five-year mortgage was costlier in terms of interest costs. Since then, however, variable-rate mortgages have generally been a little bit more expensive.

Obviously, there’s nothing in this study that decides the fixed-rate versus variable-rate debate once and for all.

In fact, the CMHC study may just confuse anyone who recalls some research done for Manulife Financial back in 2000 by York University finance professor Moshe Milevsky. His research found that the extra interest charged on a five-year mortgage would have cost $20,000 on average between 1950 and 2000 for a $100,000 mortgage amortized over 15 years.

To make some sense of the variable-rate versus five-year question, let’s go back to the CMHC study.

It shows that five-year mortgages, discounted or otherwise, were especially bad choices for a three-year period starting in mid-1993. Rates were high for a while back then, but they subsequently fell.

You were a spectator to these rate declines if you were stuck in a five-year mortgage, while people in variable-rate mortgages would have benefited almost immediately.

It’s a different world now, though. Five-year mortgage rates are close to a 50-year low, which suggests they’re far more likely to rise over their term than fall.

So what’s the best choice here, variable-rate or five-year fixed rate? People who want to pay rock-bottom mortgage rates for as long as possible will probably still want a variable-rate mortgage. Remember, you can lock this sort of mortgage into a fixed term without penalty in most cases.

The case for the five-year term looks almost as strong, though. First, the CMHC study tells us there may not be a significant cost to locking your mortgage in for five years, and you might even save a little over a variable-rate mortgage.

Second, the likelihood of higher rates in the years to come would suggest that this is a good time to lock in.

If you had a variable-rate mortgage discounted to 4 per cent, the prime would have to go up by 0.85 of a percentage point to equal the current five-year rate. That’s not a lot of ground to cover in the span of 12 to 18 months when the economy is doing well.

Arguably, the variable-rate versus fixed-rate debate is all about risks and rewards. Right now, the five-year option offers much less risk, and almost as much reward.






“Wow!” you say to your spouse as you hit the brakes on the car. “Did you see the mortgage rate those guys are advertising?” Your worries are over, you’re thinking. Just lock in a rate like that for the next ten years, and you’ve got it made.

Not so fast. That rate may not be the one for you. Typically, the lowest available rate – and the one that makes the rate sign look great from the street – will be for a variable or adjustable-rate mortgage. That rate has the potential to be like a roller coaster. The posted variable or adjustable rate is the rate you’re getting today. Unless you have an economic ouija board, you won’t be able to predict what kind of ups and downs are ahead of you.

Let’s take a closer look. A lender will offer different rates for different types of mortgages. The rates are determined based on financial risk -to the institution and to you. When a customer is willing to take on the risk, he/she is rewarded with a lower rate. If the lender is taking on the risk (that is, the customer is promised a particular rate… regardless of what happens in the future), the rate is higher. The longer the term, the higher the risk for the financial institution.

So how do you decide? Fixed-rate mortgages, because they require a low risk tolerance, are usually better suited to first-time buyers or those who haven’t owned a home for a very long period. Ask yourself these questions: Do you like or need to know exactly what your payment is going to be over a longer period of time? Do you want to avoid the need to consistently watch rates? Do you have less than 25% down? If you answered “yes” to all, or most of these questions, a more conservative fixed-rate ontario mortgage could be the better choice for you.

A variable or adjustable-rate mortgage is best suited to people who have a flexible budget and can tolerate higher risk. Ask yourself these questions: Do you watch market conditions? Can you handle any sudden rate increases that could increase your payment? Do you have 25% or more equity in your home? If you answered “yes” to all, or most of these questions, a variable or adjustable-rate mortgage might best suit your needs.

Some lenders offer a special promotional rate for the first few months of a variable-rate mortgage, which you should discuss with your mortgage broker. Also discuss what your rate will be based on – prime minus 0.5% or 0.6% or on Bankers’ Acceptances (BAs) plus 1%. The latter being a new kind of adjustable-rate mortgage that has recently been introduced to the marketplace. Most variables or adjustables allow you to exercise an option to “lock in” a fixed rate at any time for the remaining portion of your mortgage term or for a longer term.

If the uncertainty of a floating rate is going to give you sleepless nights, you’re in good company. Many Canadians prefer the certainty of a fixed-rate mortgage. They know exactly how much they will pay over the term of their mortgage, and they can plan accordingly… with no financial surprises. But if rates do drop… and drop… and drop… you are committed to the “promise” that you have made. Your best option – have a mortgage broker help you decide which option best meets your needs.






Establishing a business is no longer a problem in these days. Thanks to the various loan schemes that have been introduced in the market to facilitate things for people have given them a chance to establish their own business, if they do not have one and to reconstruct their existing business. Thanks to these various loan products and loan schemes things have become much eased out and much relaxed. Gone are those days when people had to think twice before establishing their own business. Now they can do thanks to secured business loans. These loan products have been specially made for the business class people. With the help of these loans, now they fulfill their dreams of establishing their own business and even expanding their existing business. This loan has helped them to fulfill their dreams.

The money industry has been witnessing a huge boom for the past some time and because of this advancement, various banks and financial institutions have come out with various loan plans and loan products that have facilitated the lives of people today. Therefore, today business people can take the help of secured business loans to take care of their businesses. This is a bigger and a broader term and there are many more sub categories under this huge category. This means that under secured business loans there are many categories of loan products and a business person can select any one of them. These loans have been specially introduced keeping the needs of a business man in mind. Being secured loans, these loans definitely involve putting up collateral against the loan amount that the person takes.

One needs to put up some asset as the collateral against the loan amount that he or she is taking from the bank or any other financial institution. This is a necessity because the involvement of fraudulence has become too much, especially in the domain of loans. Moreover, since a security is involved in secured business loans, the rate of interest that is applicable on the loan amount is much less and costs almost nothing. Moreover, the time period that is given to the borrower for the repayment of the loan amount is from six months to ten years. This means that the borrower gets a good amount of time to relay back the loan amount to the lender, which can be a bank or any financial institution.

There are many banks and financial institutions that offer Secured business loans to business person or to people who want to start off their business. Obviously, if someone who wants to start off a business needs the loan, then he or she needs to show the blueprint of the kind of business that he or she wants to get into. Moreover, the lender would definitely see the feasibility of the business and whether or not the business has the potential to earn profit or not. Therefore, it is very important that you are thoroughly prepared to present the blueprint of your business to the bank or the financial institution from you would be taking the loan to establish your dream.