Smartfinans

Smartfinans, Your Partner in Norwegian Financial Information

Your financial journey can always use proper navigation to assist with all the possibilities and options out there. At Smartfinans.no, our mission is to be the go-to destination for Norwegian consumers who want to learn about personal finance.

In addition, we help to develop a database of information and support on exactly how to shop for and compare different kinds of financial products, such as loans, insurance, utility providers, and much more.

We have made the site entirely free to use and encourage our visitor base to return often to see what new updates we've posted or financial information we've discovered.

Our information can help you finalize a major decision, whether it's to obtain a mortgage, finance your car purchase, or other topics related to finance. Yet, of course, as a source of unbiased financial truth, we don't provide any one of these services ourselves; we merely help aggregate the existing offerings and showcase their pros and cons to those interested in growing their personal finance knowledge.

Our final piece is offering data sets, tables, and a wealth of information to become a centralized, one-stop location for all relevant and localized financial and personal financial information.

1. Mortgages

A critical part for many in the home buying process is that a mortgage can help fellow Norwegians obtain their dream home and build out their equity and wealth through low-interest repayments. Yet not all mortgages are the same, and it's essential to take one's time to make a comparison of all readily available mortgage options based on just how they might qualify.

Although there are two major types of mortgages in Norway, "annuitetslån" and "serielån", they each have their very own variations, associated costs, and interest rates that change with each mortgage provider. Understanding what your payments will certainly look like and whether to take shorter or longer-term loans are essential to know before making this financial decision.

Once it's made, it means you're committed to repaying that mortgage, whether it's 10 or 20 years long. Also, as you can see, interest rates can constantly change and shift, relying on the overall state of the local economy. Not to mention a mortgage rate going up simply one percentage point can cost several hundred thousand Kroner of interest over the life of the mortgage.

Smartfinans will certainly help decrypt the complexities of mortgages and just how payments and rates will affect you. We provide up-to-date comparisons on what is the best option for your specific financial situation. We after that dive deeper right into explaining what you can do to help reduce your mortgage after you obtain one and what it looks like if you utilize your home as a means to prolong added credit, whether for repairs or future real estate investments.

2. Car Loans

One might think that car loans are a similar process and offering to mortgages. Although there are some similarities, car loans are a lot smaller and have shorter terms than mortgages. Also, because a house is often not being utilized as collateral, the rates of the car loans will usually end up being higher than mortgages.

Your car loan will certainly also rely on the age of the car, as there are certain limitations on exactly how old a vehicle can be before going to a financing agent or bank to be able to obtain a car loan for a used car.

Car loans are also obtainable beyond the bank, as specific automotive dealers and third-party alternatives can help to secure financing for your next car. Unfortunately, this makes the overall market extremely competitive, and hard to decide through the chaos of information which loan is right for you.

Smartfinans is here to have the most easily available comparison of all the readily available car loan offerings and their range of interest rates and terms. So you can save thousands of Kroner simply by taking some time to look at lower fixed rates and working within your budget and not merely purchasing the latest and most expensive car out there. We'll also help provide you with tips and tricks to compare if it's better to save up for your car or pay interest on a loan for over 10 years.

3. Personal Loans

You might see a lot of new lending start-up companies coming up with ads that state how fast you can secure funds through a personal loan. They can seem tempting and safe, although you may not be going through a banking financial institution.

And why not merely take out a personal loan, fund a lavish holiday, or take some time off from work to work on yourself? We at Smartfinans are the first to tell you that we would rarely recommend a personal loan as an option.

Why is that? It should be a no-brainer if it seems so fast and straightforward, right? Personal loans will usually carry very high-interest rates and shorter terms, meaning that you will certainly end up with extremely high monthly payments. These have one of the highest possible rates because they are entirely insecure, and you are properly paying a lot to borrow money.

Even though we may not recommend it, we'll still exist to help Norwegian consumers find the best possible personal loans out there. We'll help you avoid anything that looks predatory, like lending, where the rates are so high, it may appear you'll never have the ability to pay them back.

Amongst popular providers of consumer loans in Norway, we find DNB, Bank Norwegian, Komplett Bank, Instabank, and Sbanken. Our helpful and easy-to-understand comparison charts will be readily available to show you example loan amounts with what the market rates look like, and hence what your payments will certainly look like. We'll help to provide educational articles to help to find alternative lending products to maintain your financial health secure.

4. Credit Cards

Another kind of unsecured loan is credit cards. They really will usually carry the highest interest rates, but they are significantly different from personal loans. In personal loans, one is borrowing the entire amount upfront and needs to start making monthly payments immediately.

On the other hand, credit cards work as revolving lines of credit, and you only pay interest on what you spend and if you do not pay off the card on time. So you'll be paying greater interest, however it won't constantly seem that way.

Yet credit cards are an excellent option for several reasons. Whether you're looking at Visa, Mastercard, or American Express, each of these cards comes with its own benefits. As an example, you can sign up with bonus reward programs, and if you're using your credit card for day-to-day investing that you would certainly be doing anyway, then those reward points will certainly grow extremely quickly.

The redemptions can be specialized travel bonuses, cash rewards, and other incentives based on the selected credit card. In addition, a few of these credit cards come with benefits beyond the reward points of the reward program, such as bonus points with certain airlines, access to airport lounges, discounts on car rentals, and even extra insurance for travel-related items.

As many local Norwegian consumers understand, Norway is not a large cash-based economy, so you'll be using your debit card for many transactions. Here at Smartfinans, we'll help you strategize exactly how using a credit card (as long as the revolving amounts are paid off in time) is the smarter method to go about it.

Of course, credit cards, like various other kinds of unsecured loans, need to be used with discipline and sparingly; otherwise, you'll quickly see just how expensive those high-interest rates can be on your unpaid credit card balances.

5. Investing

An aspect lost upon many is the best method to grow an investment fund. It seems like a far-fetched idea for many Norwegians to have such a thing as it appears to be only for the wealthy. Well, at Smartfinans, there are many ways to be able to start investing, and it doesn't take a great deal of money.

Investing is essential, and we show you the different ways to start, grow and maintain your investments. Even that savings account that you put away a few funds per month will certainly grow and gain small interest over time.

That's your start foundation. We'll then expand right into sophisticated investments such as the local and foreign stock market, what bonds are, and why they should be part of your portfolio. Also just how real estate and property can be an excellent source of stable returns and a method to obtain payments back to you as a consumer.

Smartfinans will be here every step of the means, reviewing traditional investment methods and showing examples with our easy-to-read tables of what the return on investments might look like.

Periodically, we'll also look at alternative types of properties that are trending and show the benefits, possible challenges, and threats of those sorts of investments. As constantly, we'll only be explaining how the investments will be working and won't be really recommending a specific investment vehicle.

6. Insurance

We may often really feel that insurance looks like throwing away your hard-earned Kroner every month, and there are small to no benefits. After all, the core items such as health insurance are constantly primarily taken care of, so what else would certainly there be?

Here at Smartfinans, our team believe that having the correct kind of insurance is always a good idea. Specifically as we get older, accumulating a strong insurance history can help in case of those major emergencies that can occur in life.

So whether it's extra health insurance for highly specialized treatments or travel insurance when going abroad, we'll take a look at the different flavors of insurance there are for you. This will also consist of disability insurance and, ultimately, one of the essential insurances out there for families: life insurance.

With insurance, the sooner you figure out which ones are necessary, it's good to start paying right into them now. The benefits can improve over time depending upon what sort of insurance you've selected. Smartfinans will be your guide in explaining which kind of insurance you need and which you may want to pass upon.

7. Electricity suppliers

We've all seen our utility bills going up and wondering if there'll be any kind of relief soon. As the energy price most likely will continue to rise in the near future, Smartfinas will certainly be your partner in looking for those hidden offers and cost-saving utility partners.

Smartfinans will work tirelessly to see what the changes are with the existing electrical company options and help compare the cheapest option because, after all, the electricity is the same regardless of how much you end up paying for it.

8. Charging Systems for EVs

We Norwegians love our renewable energy initiatives, and that's why eight out of ten cars in Norway are electric. There's rarely a day where we don't see an EV or Tesla being driven around. That's why much of us may want to consider purchasing a charging system for our EV.

At Smartfinans, we'll help our fellow Norwegians look for the right providers (such as Easee and Zaptec) and provide clear breakdowns of what costs and savings connected with these charging systems will look like.

9. The Best Hotels in Norway

Our final sphere of support at Smartfinans will certainly be to help provide local Norwegians (and those looking to visit) with the best hotel options in the major Norwegian cities. We'll be providing reviews and updates to one of the most popular available hotels in these cities, as well as continually work towards providing you with ways to save money through discounted prices.

In The End

Smartfinans is everything about consistency and relevancy. When you visit our site, you'll be growing your personal financial education as well as getting the most up to date information on the overall economic scene in Norway.

In addition, we'll be covering new financial products as we learn about them, and let you, our community, understand what you would certainly best use them for and if they are worth your time. Our objective is to bring a much more straightforward method for you, the consumer, to always be as informed as possible in finding the best provider for a given product or service.