Should you take a loan from Big Picture Loan? Personal loans $200 to $5,000 for Bad Credit
Big Picture Loans offers loans between $200 and $5,000 for people who have bad or poor credit.
If you are approved, they will deposit the loan amount into your bank account on the next business day. Sounds easy and convenient. But should you use Big Picture Loans to cover your next financial emergency? We’ll tell you everything you need to know about Big Picture Loans so you can make the best decision for your financial life.
We’ve spent years in the lending industry and we track all the details about nearly 100 national lenders. We understand their policies, procedures, and what you can expect when you work with them.
The first question people often have about Big Picture Loans is what their APR is.
Their minimum APR is a hundred and sixty percent (160%) and their maximum APR is six hundred and ninety-nine percent (699%). However, you can only qualify for their minimum APR if you are a returning customer in good standing. The lowest APR a new customer can receive is two-hundred and fifty percent (250%).
Six hundred and ninety-nine percent (699%) is a really high APR, by any standards. Most states have usury laws that prevent interest rates that high. So, the obvious question is how they are able to issue loans that cost that much. Big Picture Loans doesn’t have to adhere to state or federal lending laws. That’s because they are owned and operated by the LACK View Desair Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, which is a federally recognized sovereign nation. That sovereignty grants the tribe a degree of autonomy and self-governance, which can exempt them from certain state and federal regulations. It’s the same principle that has allowed tribes to open casinos in states where gambling is illegal.
Big Picture Loans is very open and transparent about their tribal lending laws.
You can access their financial regulatory code from their website. In that document, they point out which federal laws that they adhere to for convenience of its customers. But, APR caps are not included.
If you want to apply for credit from Big Picture Loans, you will need a bank account, phone number, email address, and be at least 18 years old. The application will ask for a range of information including your full name, social security number, date of birth, valid drivers license, cell phone number, home address, and whether you rent or own your home. Finally, they will ask you to provide the username and password to your bank account. They use that information to verify your identity, income, and other financial information. While that seems awfully intrusive, more and more lenders are requiring it as part of their application. If you refuse to provide bank account credentials, they could deny your application or offer a minimal amount of money at one of their higher APRs.
If you are ten days late on a payment, they will charge you a $20 late fee.
Twenty dollars is one of the higher late fee amounts for companies that offer personal loans, especially loans targeted to people with poor or bad credit. It is not uncommon for companies to not charge a late fee because they know that the accruing interest is high enough to dissuade borrowers from being late if they can help it.
A five-hundred percent (500%) APR is hard to intuitively understand. So, let me provide examples of what that would look like for you. If you borrowed five hundred dollars at a five-hundred percent APR for 12 months, your bi-weekly payment would be eighty-nine dollars. Over the course of the year, you would end up repaying two-thousand three-hundred and two dollars, ultimately paying over eighteen-hundred dollars in interest.
If your financial emergency requires you to borrow $500, the idea of spending nearly two-thousand dollars on interest can be hard to swallow. Big Picture Loans does not charge a prepayment penalty, so it would be important that you pay the loan off as early as you possibly can.
Consider that five hundred dollar loan at a five-hundred percent APR. If you make bi-weekly payments for two months and are then make a lump sum payment to pay off the principal, you would end up paying a total of eight-hundred and forty-seven dollars. Instead of paying eighteen-hundred dollars in interest, you would be paying just under three-hundred and fifty dollars. That’s why it is so crucial to pay this kind of loan off as soon as you can.
But before you take a loan from Big Picture Loans, you owe it to yourself to shop around.
Lenders who serve people with poor to bad credit often have their own algorithms for deciding who to approve and at what rate. Instead of using credit score, they will often look at other information in your credit report. That means that some might deny you while another one would approve you.
At The Yukon Project, we’ve tried to make shopping around easy. If you visit our marketplace page, you enter the amount you are looking for and your credit score to see some of our featured lenders in that space. You can apply to any one of them. Behind the scenes, we will check your rate with up to 40 other lenders. Our partners use a soft credit check, so applying won’t hurt your credit score. We will show you all the lenders who would approve you so you can be sure to get the best deal you can in your situation.
If you have any direct experience with Big Picture Loans, please leave a comment below. We are trying to build a community of people who can share their experience so we can all make better financial decisions. If you found this information helpful, please like this video. Your support helps us out and we appreciate it. Thanks for watching.
See if you get approved.
