Product Review: GetLower home refinancing

About the company: “With interest rates at historically low levels, you can refinance your existing home loan and save thousands of dollars a year. Current rates available from some of our partners are under 4.5%, and reducing your interest rate a few points can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your home loan. With GetLower.com approved lenders competing for an opportunity to service your loan needs, we put you at the head of the pack. Get started refinancing your home loan needs today or to find out what rates are currently available visit our resource center.”

The big pitch: Multiple Offers. Get Lower Rates. Get Started Today.

GetLower.com provides a wide range of financial services including home loans, personal credit, banking, real estate, insurance, utilities, and a ton of other resources. You can learn more about each financial category on the site itself, and should you decide that you need a little help in that area, they will find you the best deals in the marketplace.

Looking for a Real Estate agent in your area? GetLower.com will help match you up with the best agents available. Their search engine simply asks you the geographic location in which you want to search for a home, number of rooms in the home, price of the home, and the like, and they then do the busy work for you.

If you have questions about a loan, GetLower.com provides online loan calculators that can help you determine the amount of payment on a loan based on the amount of the loan, term of the financing, and the annual interest rate. Just type in the information and - bam! - GetLower crunches the numbers so you don’t have to.

Have you moved to new area and are in need of utility services, or do you want to see if there is a better utility plan available in your area? GetLower enables you to search for utility companies for long distance, broadband, local, and media services. You can even search based on the extent of options you desire, if you want to combine services, and the state in which you live.

Bottom line, we see a whole lot of these 'lender search engines' at Product Trends Magazine, and many of them are no more than a portal to other companies with not a lot of value added. With GetLower, we see enough content and information present to make this a definite first stop. It's worth your time, and that's more than many of its competitors will be able to say.

The Product Trends rating: GetLower.com provides a robust, extensive list of resources that ranges from loans and credit cards to real estate and utilities. The online calculators and service locators serve as comprehensive, useful resources to any visitor, and we like the way it all comes together. To top it all off, GetLower is approved by the Better Business Bureau. Five stars. --Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try GetLower for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: PaycheckToday payday loans

About the company: “With PaycheckToday, even if you have bad credit, you can still get quick cash for emergencies. Payday advances, also called payday loans, cash advances, instant cash loans, payroll advances or paycheck loans, are short-term loans that can be taken against a future paycheck. If approved, your loan proceeds will be deposited directly into your personal bank account. When your loan payment is due, the finance charge will be automatically debited from your checking account unless other payment arrangements have been made. Cash Advance Network loans require no faxing. Just fill out the online application for instant pre-approval.”

The big pitch: Applications are pre-approved in just 30 seconds! Based on your application, you may qualify for a payday loan up to $1000 - Your credit rating just isn't important!”

As a rule, we don't really like the payday loan industry. It seems that there are just too many outfits out there preying on the desperation of people with poor credit, charging them an arm and a leg, and leaving them worse than when they started out. That said, some payday loan companies seem to be working hard at making sure that their service is one that their customers an rely on - and PaycheckToday is just one such company.

If you are between a rock and hard place for money, a cash advance can sometimes be a necessity if you are living paycheck to paycheck. Cash advances are often used for rent and other life expenses, but as the holidays near, many people need just a little bit of credit to help them over the hump.

www.paychecktoday.com provides lightning fast service - you can be approved within the hour and the money is deposited into your bank account the next business day. This process is dependent upon PaycheckToday receiving all the required information, which makes it essential to supply the proper information so the process won’t be delayed.

What type of information is required when you apply for a cash advance from PaycheckToday.com? They will require personal, employment and banking information. Personal information includes such things as the loan amount (up to $1,000), name, social security number, address, etc. Employment information includes such things as the name of your employer and whether you work part time or full time. Banking information is necessary so they can put money into your account - and take that money back when your loan is ready to be repaid.

Worried that your credit rating blows? Don’t worry. PaycheckToday doesn’t run a credit check on you before deciding whether you should qualify for a loan. All they need to know is you have an income, and you're basically good to go.

So if you need a cash advance, and you're fully aware what a payday loan entails, take a look at PaycheckToday and give them a try. As always, we recommend you read all the fine print and ONLY take on a payday loan if you feel confident about the company you're dealing with, but we've seen plenty of lenders out there with a lot less to boast about than PaycheckToday - so make them your first step.

The Product Trends rating: If you need a cash advance of $1,000 or less, then this is a great website to check out. You can be approved within one hour and have the money deposited in your account within one business day. As far as payday loans go, that's a great start. Four stars. --Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try PaycheckToday for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: LoanHounds loan searcher

About the company: “LoanHounds brings new mortgage, refinance, debt consolidation, home equity and other mortgage loans to you through a network of the country's largest lenders and top mortgage professionals who compete for your business. LoanHounds mortgage lenders have processed more than 2.1 million mortgage loan requests and have facilitated over $10 billion in closed mortgage loans. Fill out one simple form and request up to four mortgage lenders in our network to contact you. It's that easy. No wonder LoanHounds is the fastest growing mortgage loan quote site on the internet.”

The big pitch: Four LoanHounds mortgage lenders will contact you within 24 hours with an offer of a loan. No commitment, no fee - just mortgage lenders fighting over your business!

LoanHounds makes the process of finding and acquiring a loan very easy. The LoanHounds.com website enables you to find a quote on several different types of loans, from a vareity of options.

Do you need a quote on mortgage options? Loanhounds.com saves you time and money by bringing the different lender quotes right to you, so you don’t have to scour each of the lender’s individual websites.

When you put your details into the LoanHounds website, a maximum of four LoanHounds lenders receive your contact information and get busy offering you a great deal. That's the concept, but the question for us was, how do we know these lenders are any good? LoanHounds says, "The LoanHounds mortgage lender network is comprised of the top professionals in lending. Each company must respond within 24 hours, provide competitive rates through volume pricing, correspondent lending, or warehouse credit lines, and have a track record of closing loans on time with no hidden fees."

That's good enough for us!

LoanHounds strives for 100% customer satisfaction and tells their customers to stay in touch and let them know how their lenders perform, so as to ensure they always keep a good crop of agents.

If you are looking for credit card information all in one place, LoanHounds provides links to several different credit card lenders. You can find the right credit card for your needs by clicking on direct links to credit card lenders where you can apply online and may be eligible for instant approval.

Lastly, LoanHounds.com features a home loan blog, where you can find current news regarding mortgage rates, loan advice, refinancing, and debt consolidation. In our testing of the company, we found the information on this blog to be great all by itself, even if you don't use the loan finder service.

The Product Trends Rating: If you are looking for a way to access several financial lenders all at one website in the comfort of you own home then www.loanhounds.com is for you. Find mortgage, credit card, personal loan, auto loan, and payday loans all in one stop. Four stars.

To try LoanHounds for yourself, click the image below:

Product Review: Planet Loan financing search engine

About the company: “Planet Loan is the 100% advertiser supported loan search engine. We are not a lender or broker. When you choose to inquire with a lender or broker who advertises on Planet Loan, your information remains between you and that lender(s). Advertisers are solely responsible for keeping their information current.”

The big pitch: Purchase, refinance, cash out your home’s equity, loans for those with damaged credit, get a personal loan…it’s your choice!

Planet Loan is an online loan search engine where you can search for financial information regarding home loans, mortgages, debt consolidation, personal loans, auto loans, commercial loans, credit card finder, and student loans.

Using this website, you can get a quote on all different types of loans from home equity loans to construction loans. Specify your location and you’ll receive a free quote in hours. You can also search for loans based on your credit standing, or find information on loans available to you whether you have good credit or damaged credit.

Have you been thinking of getting a credit card? Do you need a personal credit card of business credit card or both? Either way, you can find information regarding credit cards at www.planetloan.com using their “Credit Card Finder”, which allows you to search by credit card type, including: standard credit cards, specialty credit cards, secured credit cards, platinum credit cards, student and business credit cards.

PlanetLoan is 100% advertiser supported, which means that when you do a search on credit cards, for example, a listing of the advertisers that pay for this service will display advertisements for their credit cards. Now, that means your results may skew a little towards their partners, but it also gives you a lot to choose from in terms of applying for the credit card by simply clicking a direct link. You also have the option of seeing if you are eligible for instant approval, and if you are, who cares whether the company bought and ad or was simply listed there as an option – the point is, you’re gonna get your loan!

Speaking of credit cards, www.planetloan.com provides a listing of vendors that offer credit repair and credit report services. Check out your credit before you apply and you just might save yourself some time trying to figure out your financial situation.

Planet Loan, like most websites of its ilk, offers an online financial calculator to help you solve your financial questions, including calculators that aid you with home and personal financing, investment loans, and retirement calculators. The calculators are presented in a format such that they match frequently asked questions, and in our experience testing the website out, we found it pretty darn useful.

The Product Trends rating: This website provides a myriad of information that may take some time to sift through. However, it is a great way to have a bunch of different options presented to you in one simple table format, which allows you to comparison shop between different financial providers, all in the one website. Four stars. ---Reviewed by Jillian Dobbs

To try Planet Loan for yourself, click the image below: