When you have bad credit, it might seem like getting a loan is simply impossible. You could really use that extra money in an unexpected financial pinch, but you don’t know if anyone is going to help you out with a loan because of your credit. All is lost, and there is no hope for bringing it back around, right? Wrong.

Even if you have bad credit, there are workarounds to find a good deal on a loan. By playing your cards right, you can leverage offers from other lenders to get your loan exactly how you want it. To help you find a good loan with bad credit, we put together four tips that will make your hunt easier.

1 – Shop Around to Compare Rates

No one said you could only ask one lender, so why would you? You can talk to as many different lenders as you want, and you should. As you start to shop around, you can get a better understanding of what different lenders are willing to offer you on your loan. 

Say you need to cover an emergency home expense. You can find lenders that specialize in helping people secure a line of credit loans for bad credit. These lenders will be able to give you different offers on what you want, so put them head to head. You can compare them on interest rates, payment periods, and the overall amount the lenders are willing to give you. That gives you a good idea of what you can get with your credit.

2 – Understand You Will Pay More with Bad Credit

Your credit score will affect how much you pay on your monthly loan premium. If you enter your loan agreement with a bad credit score, you should be prepared for two things. 

The first is that you might not get the amount of money you were looking for when you enter an agreement with bad credit. Since you don’t have a good standing with credit, you may need to work your way towards larger loans. If you opt for something like a line of credit, you can raise the lending bar by paying back what you take, especially when you pay more than the monthly minimum. If you pay it all off month over month, you can watch your credit score change over time.

The second thing you need to keep in mind is that bad credit means you will usually have higher interest rates and payments. Since the lenders see a low credit score, they may assume they might not see all of the money come back, at least not at the pace they like. To counteract this, lenders may charge you higher premiums on a loan, so they can make sure they are getting what they can each month. Just like your limit, a good payment history can help reduce these monthly payments on something like a line of credit. 

3 – Work With Lenders That Trust You

If you can’t really find a lender that meets your needs, you might want to go back to the places you are in good standing with. Say you have had a bank account for a long time with the same institution. It wasn’t this account that started your credit issues, and as a matter of fact, you only have a shiny record with that bank or lender. You might want to take your other offers and see if they can do anything better. Even the bigger banks and lenders can bend their rules based on their discretion, so you might get a better offer from that lender than you could get from anyone else. 

4 – Don’t Extend Your Loan Beyond Your Needs

Even if you get an offer back that accepts you for far more than you were hoping for, you should still just get what you need. If you are starting a line of credit, you will start to see the maximum allowance go up as you pay back what you borrowed. That doesn’t mean you should just start tapping into that bigger budget because it’s there. If you can’t fit those additional expenses into your current budget, you will dig yourself into a hole. That hole will start to hurt your credit, and that’s the exact opposite of what we are trying to do here.

The same rule applies for fixed installment loans. Just because you are approved for a certain amount doesn’t mean you have to use it all. Instead, try to have 20% of it for a budget for paying back your loan and getting the account in good standing. This will really help you out if you fall on hard months where you might not make the payments. When you get down to just that amount being owed, you can pay it all back at once.

Think About Your Budgeting

If you really go into this with a plan to pay it back on time, you will be able to make a loan work. If you take that plan and shop around, you can find the best deal on a loan, even if your credit is bad. Remember, you can talk to them about offers you already have to try and pull some leverage. Competition among lenders could turn into a better deal for you.