 TITLE: How Do Online Loans Work? CONTENT: What Is the Difference Between an Online Loan and a Traditional Loan?\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\nToday, many traditional lenders also offer loans and loan servicing online. But there are still a few distinctions that could make online-only lenders more (or less) attractive based on your preferences.\n*   **No in-person contact**: The most obvious difference is that there's no way to interact with a customer service representative or banker in person when you work with an online-only lender. If you have questions or concerns, you'll have to address these online or over the phone. This may be a good or bad thing depending on your comfort level dealing with finances online and whether you live close to a bank branch.\n*   **Quick applications and reviews**: Online-only lenders may focus their resources on creating simple and automated systems that can help streamline the application and review process. And the lender may be able to use a program to quickly verify everything without having to get a person involved.\n*   **Targeted loans**: Many online lenders only offer one or two loan products, and they create these with a specific type of borrower in mind. You may be able to find an online lender that specializes in people who have poor credit and another that specializes in loans to those with excellent credit.\n*   **Potential savings**: Because online-only lenders don't need to build, maintain or staff branches, they may be able to offer lower rates on their loans. However, this isn't universally true, and you'll want to check rates from both online and traditional lenders before applying.\n*   **Less cross-selling**: One reason traditional lenders may offer loans with low rates is that they can make money by selling you other products or services later, such as a bank account or auto loan. When you work with an online-only lender, you might not have to deal with as many offers to sign up for other products.\nWhether you want to work with an online-only lender or a traditional lender, you can look up their minimum requirements, loan offerings, interest rate ranges and potential repayment terms to determine which lenders may be a good fit. END