You have one or more loans, including an expensive overdraft facility, and you just can't get rid of the idea that you could save a lot of money by restructuring your debt? You would therefore like to know whether the early redemption of your loan(s) makes sense?
The team of KREDIT 123 helps you gladly with the clarifying of the question whether the admission of a debt rescheduling credit for you can be a meaningful enterprise. Please read the following article on the subject in detail. Afterwards you will be able to evaluate better whether a debt restructuring is interesting for you and therefore should be tackled by you – or not.
What is a debt rescheduling? Definition and explanation of terms
When an existing loan is paid off early by taking out a new loan, this is called a debt restructuring. As a rule, a debt rescheduling loan is taken out, which has a much more favorable APR than the loan to be redeemed, so that interest savings can be claimed through this.
The fact that a borrower can in principle redeem and repay an existing loan early is regulated by law. An important guideline in this context is the one on 11.06.Consumer Credit Directive 2008/48/EC, which came into force in 2010. This states that the redemption of an installment loan is possible without further ado. However, banks and credit institutions can charge a fee for early repayment of an existing loan: the so-called early repayment penalty.
This prepayment penalty may not, however, be arbitrarily determined by the lender and thus also not be arbitrarily high. It applies:
- The prepayment penalty may not exceed 1% of the remaining loan amount, provided the remaining term is still more than 12 months.
- The early repayment penalty may amount to a maximum of 0.5% of the remaining loan amount, provided that the remaining term is less than 12 months.
These rules apply only to installment loans taken out after 11.06.have been closed in 2010. For older loans, different rules apply respectively the clauses agreed in the corresponding loan agreement. Also loans secured by real estate lien such as real estate loans or also building financings are excluded from these regulations.
Who would like to determine now whether the premature redemption of one or more credits can be meaningful for it, which should determine the height of the prepayment penalty absolutely and include with its computations. Some credit offers wait with free special repayments on. So if your existing loan can even be redeemed early and rescheduled free of charge, then fortunately there are no additional costs here.
If, on the other hand, the remaining loan amount or. the remaining debt of the loan you have repaid after the 11.06.installment loan taken out in 2010, for example, 10.If the outstanding term of the loan is longer than 12 months, the bank may charge you EUR 100, unless it has included a free unscheduled repayment in the contract.
Advantages of the early redemption of loans through a rescheduling loan
The most important advantage that can result from rescheduling or taking out a debt rescheduling loan for the early repayment of existing loans is the interest savings. You can, depending on the case, save a large amount of money if you reschedule expensive loans. More on the subject of "interest savings on the early redemption of a loan" in a concrete calculation example, which you can take a look at right after the fact.
Another advantage is that when you bundle several loans through a rescheduling loan, you only have to pay one monthly installment, not several different ones. This will certainly give you a better overview of your financial situation.
The third advantage that can result from debt restructuring is the adjustment of the monthly rate. If, for example, your income situation has improved as a result of a promotion, you will be able to pay off your remaining debt more quickly and at more favorable interest rates. Of course, the reduction of the monthly installment is also conceivable, provided that you can still save money in this case by the loan redemption.
Last but not least, you can combine taking out a debt rescheduling loan with a loan increase. Increasing the loan amounts of current loans often comes at an additional cost. In the case of debt restructuring, this additional option is virtually free of charge.
Concrete calculation example for the interest savings with the debt rescheduling
As announced above, we show you here now on the basis a concrete calculation example, how much interest saving with an early redemption of a loan can be in it:
Mr. Muller has a remaining debt in the amount of 12.500 EUR. The APR of his loan is 6%. The remaining term is exactly 60 months (5 years).
The formulas for calculating the monthly installment and the cost of credit (interest on the loan) on which our example is based are:
- Monthly interest = (1 + annual interest)^(1/12) – 1
- Monthly installment = loan amount * [(1 + monthly interest)^term] * monthly interest / [(1 + monthly interest)^term – 1]
- Total loan amount (loan amount plus. Interest) = monthly installment * term
- Cost of credit (interest on credit) = total amount of credit – amount of credit
Note: The loan amount in the case of this debt restructuring is also equal to the residual debt / residual loan amount.
So let's first calculate the monthly interest according to the first formula:
- Monthly interest = (1 + 0.06)^(1/12) – 1 = 0.004867550565 (rounded to 12 decimal places)
With the help of the monthly interest rate, we can now determine the monthly installment as well as the credit costs (credit interest) that Mr. Muller still has to pay:
- monthly installment = 12.500 EUR * [(1 + 0,004867550565)^60] * 0,004867550565 / [(1 + 0,004867550565)^60 – 1] = 240,737288 (rounded to 6 decimal places) = 240,74 EUR
The credit costs result from the difference between the total credit amount and the credit amount. The total loan amount is simply the product of the monthly installment (not rounded) and the term:
- Total loan amount = 240.737288 * 60 = 14.444.237288 (rounded to 6 decimal places) = 14.444,24 EUR
- Credit costs (interest on credit) = 14.444.24 EUR – 12.500.00 EUR = 1.944,24 EUR
Since Mr. Muller was recently promoted and therefore has a higher credit score than when he took out the existing loan, he is confident that he can now take out a debt rescheduling loan in the amount of 12.to be able to borrow EUR 500 at an effective interest rate of no more than 3.5%. He would like to keep the term of 60 months.
Now let's use the above formulas to calculate the monthly installment, total loan amount and loan cost for this loan:
- Monthly installment = 227.09 EUR
- Total credit amount = 13.625.37 EUR
- Borrowing costs (interest on the loan) = 1.125.37 EUR
Gladly Mr. Muller notes that in the contract of the loan to be redeemed a free unscheduled repayment was agreed upon. Thus, he will have the following interest savings if he reschedules his existing loan:
Even if the bank were to charge an early repayment penalty of 1% of the remaining debt for the early redemption of the existing loan, Mr. Muller would still save a lot of money with this debt restructuring.
- Early repayment penalty = 1% * remaining debt = 0.01 * 12.500.00 EUR = 125.00 EUR
- Savings: 1.944,24 EUR – 1.125,37 EUR – 125,00 EUR = 693,87 EUR
Note: The above example on the topic of "interest savings in debt restructuring" is deliberately very detailed and with mention of the formulas on which the calculation is based, so that you can understand all the calculation steps as best as possible and transparent. Basically, as you can easily see from this example, the calculations for interest savings using your own calculator are neither trivial nor straightforward. As an accurate debt rescheduling calculator, we can use the debt rescheduling calculator on Kredit-Markt.eu highly recommend!
Requirements for taking out a debt rescheduling loan
Before you repay a loan early or. initiate a debt rescheduling, you should make sure that you can actually save enough money by taking out a debt rescheduling loan. In the above example, a debt restructuring would make sense. In some cases even several 1.000 EUR saved. In others, however, the effort is simply too high, just to save a few EUR.
If you have now come to the conclusion that you would like to reschedule your existing loan and pay it off early in order to save a lot of interest, then please take a brief look at the requirements that must be met in order to take out a debt rescheduling loan in Germany. Since you have obviously already taken out one or more loans, it should not be a major problem for you to clear this "hurdle".
Requirements to be able to take out a debt rescheduling loan
- You have unrestricted legal capacity and are therefore also eligible for credit.
- You have a permanent residence in the Federal Republic of Germany.
- You have a German bank account.
- You can prove that you have a regular monthly income and are no longer on probation as an employee.
- You reliably pay bills that are due and can also be classified as creditworthy according to your SCHUFA data.
If you can prove that you have a regular income, it is relatively easy for employees with a permanent employment contract, public sector employees, civil servants and pensioners to qualify for a loan. In fact, these groups may submit salary slips, pay slips, employment contracts or pension statements in order to convince the lending bank of a regular monthly income. However, the situation is different for self-employed persons, freelancers, tradesmen and entrepreneurs.
Self-employed people and entrepreneurs are not necessarily among the favorite customers of banks, as their income situations are sometimes subject to very strong seasonal fluctuations. Thus, the relevant credit institution checks very carefully whether the submitted documents can prove that there is a secure income, or not. Since a self-employed person can present neither employment contract nor salary slips, he submits logically other documents, in order to convince the lending bank of regulated income conditions. These are mentioned below.
Documents that self-employed persons submit for credit application review
- Business assessment (BWA)
- EuR, balance sheets and/or annual financial statements
- Tax assessment notices from the tax office
- Evidence of other income (income from securities trading, rental income, dividends, etc.).)
Since it is no secret that self-employed and freelancers sometimes have a very hard time getting a fair loan, some credit institutions have specialized in granting loans exactly to this target group. For example, there is the Postbank Business Loan, which offers extremely acceptable conditions. Sberbank also expressly points out to grant loans to freelancers. Interested parties can find the corresponding offer here.
Loan collateral for additional security of the debt rescheduling loan
Debt restructuring and early redemption of existing loans are primarily about interest savings. And the more favorable the APR of the debt rescheduling loan, the greater the interest savings. For this very reason, applicants should pull out all the stops to obtain approval for a particularly favorable loan. The following can be of particular help here: loan collateral.
Loan collateral is divided into two types: personal and material. While the personal security options include the registration of a guarantee and the addition of a second borrower, the material loan collateral, which is also referred to as real collateral, includes the taking out of a mortgage, the entry in the land register (land charge) and the transfer of ownership of a motor vehicle as security. All of these variations can go a long way toward providing additional collateral for a debt restructuring loan. And thereby ensure the approval of more favorable interest rates!
Guarantee
The deficiency guarantee and the directly enforceable guarantee are accepted by many banks. The former is also known as a "conditional surety".
Whereas in the case of a deficiency guarantee, the guarantor only has to step into the breach when the bank has already exhausted all legal means to collect the debt from the borrower, the person who has signed a directly enforceable guarantee is already liable at the moment when there is a payment default. A person who provides a directly enforceable guarantee is thus almost like a second borrower.
Addition of a second borrower
Even though the guarantor who has signed a directly enforceable guarantee has a similar liability as the second borrower, there are nevertheless certain differences here. Because the second borrower has in principle also a say, which concerns the use of the taken up credit amount. Or in other words, when taking out a joint loan, both borrowers have equal rights and obligations.
Mortgage and land charge
Mortgage and land charge are common real collateral to secure higher loans. For example, real estate or construction loans are secured by real estate liens. In concrete terms, this means that real estate or land will be financially encumbered in order to additionally secure the loan taken out. One should note with these two loan securities that additional costs are to be carried here, since for example a notary must be assigned for the land register entry.
Motor vehicle chattel mortgage
Motor vehicle chattel mortgage is also a relatively popular form of collateral for a loan, especially a car loan. In this case, signing a collateral assignment agreement and handing over the corresponding vehicle title provides a motor vehicle as collateral to reduce the lender's default risk.
Basically, it varies from bank to bank which loan collateral it accepts for the collateralization of a certain loan. Before applying for a debt rescheduling loan, please ask specifically what loan collateral you are allowed to put up to reduce the lender's default risk and the reduction in the effective interest rate that normally goes hand in hand with this!
Our tips for your successful debt restructuring
The team of KREDIT 123 wishes very much that you can save as much money as possible with the admission of a particularly favorable rescheduling credit with the discharge of your existing credits. For the reason we give you in the following still a few tips to the best, whose observance is very important from our view, in order to arrange a debt restructuring as profitable as possible:
1. Tip: Use accurate loan calculators and make detailed loan comparisons!
Thanks to the Internet, you now have a wide range of high-quality tools at your disposal, which you can use to find extremely attractive loan offers. So take your time, use accurate loan calculators and meticulously compare the terms of different debt restructuring loans!
When comparing loans, pay attention not only to the annual percentage rate of charge, but also to flexible terms and conditions such as installment breaks or free unscheduled repayment options. It could well be that at a later date you would also like to replace the debt rescheduling loan you are now taking out with another debt rescheduling loan, in order to save interest and thus cash again!
2. Tip: Be sure to specify the debt restructuring you are seeking as the purpose for the loan!
When searching for and applying for a debt rescheduling loan, be sure to specify the purpose "rescheduling"! When comparing loans, this will show you the specific offers that relate to loan restructuring. In addition, specifying the concrete purpose of use can have a positive effect on your creditworthiness!
"How the?" – are you wondering right now? If you specify the rescheduling as a purpose, the corresponding monthly installment is not considered an additional expense, as would be the case with a conventional installment loan for free use, especially since one or more existing installments are to be paid off with the new one. It is often the case that the bundling of several installments creates more financial freedom, since the new monthly installment is more favorable than the sum of the installments to be redeemed.
3. Tip: If possible, adjust the monthly installment upwards!
If, when calculating your budget (monthly income minus fixed expenses), you come to the conclusion that you can easily afford a higher monthly installment, it is advisable to adjust the monthly installment of your debt rescheduling loan upwards. The sooner you repay a loan in full, the lower the loan costs will be.
If you choose a lower monthly rate, you will indeed benefit from a lower financial burden per month. However, the credit costs to be paid go up in that case. To determine the new desired rate, it is highly recommended to use an accurate loan calculator! By the way, we recommend the debt rescheduling calculator on Kredit-Markt.eu.
4. Tip: Make sure that the new lender also offers a credit switch service!
So that the additional expenditure for the execution of the Umschuldung does not eat the interest saving away, we recommend to you to look for a lender, who offers not only a favorable Umschuldungskredit, but also a free credit change service! After you submit the documents for the loan(s) to be redeemed to one, they will take care of the complete process of redemption.
5. Tip: Provide loan collateral if possible!
As mentioned above, both personal and real loan collateral can be very effective ways to increase your credit score and then use this to push down your interest burden as well. The addition of a second borrower is particularly welcome. Before you apply for a loan, be sure to ask which loan collateral is accepted by the relevant lender as security for the debt rescheduling loan!
6. Tip: Check your entries with SCHUFA!
Especially when taking out a debt rescheduling loan with a higher loan amount, it may make sense to make use of the free SCHUFA information in advance, which you are entitled to once a year. This way you can check your data with the SCHUFA and if necessary. Correct or delete incorrect or outdated entries.
If SCHUFA entries that drag down your SCHUFA score can be deleted, your creditworthiness increases. And this can have a positive impact on the effective interest rate offered to you by a credit institution.
If you take into account all the tips just mentioned, then it should be a piece of cake for you to save a lot of money by paying off your expensive existing loans early with the help of taking out a cheap debt restructuring loan!
Frequently asked questions about debt restructuring
Is a debt restructuring possible despite SCHUFA?
A debt rescheduling despite SCHUFA is generally possible if, for example, only a small loan amount is needed to pay off an expensive overdraft facility. There are online providers in Germany that grant a small loan up to a certain amount even despite a negative SCHUFA entry, provided that a regular income situation can be proven.
Even higher loan amounts can sometimes be taken out despite negative SCHUFA, if suitable loan collateral can be provided. Assuming you have a bad SCHUFA score, but can add a second borrower with very good income and very high creditworthiness, then there are banks that will grant you a rescheduling loan despite SCHUFA.
Can I take out a debt restructuring loan without SCHUFA??
You will not be able to obtain a debt rescheduling loan without SCHUFA from a commercial credit institution in Germany, as German banks are contractual partners of the credit agency SCHUFA and generally carry out a thorough credit check, which also includes a query about your SCHUFA entries. However, there is the basic possibility of obtaining a loan without SCHUFA in other European countries.
Such a loan is granted, for example, by Luxembourg or Liechtenstein credit institutions, such as the SIGMA Kreditbank AG, about whose offers we have already reported here.
With a loan without SCHUFA, the query of your SCHUFA data is waived. However, this does not mean that the detailed examination of your income situation is waived! Credit institutions abroad naturally also want to ensure that you are able to repay the loan you have taken out. With irregular income, you will therefore not be able to get a "debt restructuring loan without SCHUFA" even abroad!
Important note: If you are looking for a debt rescheduling loan without SCHUFA come across upfront costs, it is highly advisable to keep your hands off the corresponding offer. Because here it is very likely that a dubious loan shark tries to pull you over the table!
Reschedule credit at minus interest?
A rescheduling at minus interest is actually possible, as there are providers who offer so-called action loans with negative interest rates. The smava Negativzins-Kredit, about which we have written a test report here, is for example such a promotional loan.
As a rule, the loan amounts that can be taken out via these minus interest loans are limited to smaller four-digit amounts. It is therefore conceivable that this will primarily be used to pay off an expensive overdraft facility.
Is also the rescheduling of a construction financing or a real estate loan possible?
For real estate and construction financing secured by real estate liens, only a limited right of termination applies under Section 489 of the German Civil Code (BGB). A rescheduling of a real estate or construction loan is only possible here after the end of the debit interest rate lock-in period or ten years after disbursement of the loan amount (or ten years after the last adjustment of the corresponding loan agreement).
After the expiry of these periods, a debt rescheduling is possible without having to pay an early repayment penalty. Please note, however, that you will have to pay a fee for the transfer of the land charge to the new lender.
Can I also reschedule a car loan?
You can reschedule installment loans of any kind, provided that this is not a loan secured by a lien on real property. For these, namely, different rules apply than for conventional installment loans. So you can also reschedule your car loan, if this makes sense and you can save money this way.
When is a debt restructuring useful?
A debt rescheduling is always useful if you can achieve a high interest savings by paying off existing loans. This is particularly the case if the loans to be redeemed were taken out at interest rates that today can be classified as (much) too high.
When evaluating whether a debt restructuring can make sense for you or not, it is important that you take into account all costs and also the necessary time expenditure. Please check whether you have to pay an early repayment penalty when you redeem your existing loan, and also how high this is.
Is it possible to avoid the early repayment penalty?
Basically, there are ways and means to avoid the prepayment penalty when paying off installment loans early. In this article we have dealt with this topic in detail.