One of the biggest ongoing expenses homeowners face is regular maintenance to keep their homes in working condition. It’s a good idea to budget 1% of your home’s value for maintenance annually. Even with preventative maintenance, breakdowns occur, and when that happens, homeowners are faced with emergency repairs. Take a look at some practical ways you can pay for emergency home repairs when you don’t have the funds to cover them.
Tap into your home equity.
A smart way to finance emergency home repairs is to tap into your home’s equity. You can borrow up to your credit limit as needed when you have an open home equity line of credit (HELOC). Lines of credit feature a far lower interest rate than credit cards. There is some risk with this type of loan because it’s a secured debt that uses your home as collateral in the event you default on monthly payments. Your eligibility to apply for a HELOC depends on how much equity you have accumulated.
The key to keeping your energy bills in check is to keep up with the regular maintenance of your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. There are several pros to maintaining your HVAC system. Ensuring the coils are debris- and leak-free, checking refrigerant levels, replacing old air filters with clean ones, ensuring the vents aren’t allowing cold air in, and keeping the ductwork debris-free is key to improving airflow and keeping moisture in check.
The best way to maintain your HVAC unit is to have a technician perform preventative maintenance. The trained HVAC professionals at West Coast Heating, Air Conditioning & Solar can answer all of your common HVAC questions and suggest the best solutions and options maintain a comfortable home while lowering utility bills. The HVAC company offers installation and repair services for furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioning systems, solar paneling and solar-powered systems; indoor air quality solutions, and HVAC system maintenance.
Take out a personal loan.
Most financial institutions and online lenders offer emergency personal loans between $1,000 and $40,000. Several factors affect your eligibility for a personal loan, including your credit score, employment history, income level, and amount of debt. This type of loan also has a lower interest rate than credit cards, and most borrowers can take out an unsecured loan, meaning there’s no need for collateral. You have a set repayment time period to pay off the specific amount that you borrow.
No matter what type of debt you have, keeping up with monthly payments can be overwhelming. Falling behind in payments is stressful enough, and having debt collectors harassing you doesn’t help matters. The best option when dealing with debt burden is to consult a credit counselor. The debt resolution specialists at Citizen’s Debt Relief work with clients to create a custom debt management plan to alleviate their debt burden and learn better personal finance management practices.
The debt relief company works with creditors to cease collection efforts and create fast and effective solutions to get you out of debt sooner. Whether you need debt consolidation and smaller monthly payments, help to refinance your mortgage, or debt resolution to appease creditors, or you are considering bankruptcy, the first step toward debt relief is to seek the expertise of a debt relief company.
Pay for repairs with a credit card.
It’s possible to pay for repairs using a credit card. The important thing to understand when paying with plastic is that you’ll be paying a high-interest rate on any unpaid balance. You can save on interest by taking advantage of a 0% intro APR card. This option means you won’t pay interest on credit card payments for a set period of time. The key is to pay off the balance before the promotional period ends.
Keep these finance tips in mind when facing emergency home repairs.
