In this brief article, we will cover 6 simple, practical, and essential key points that we feel you should evaluate, when exploring online lenders: Feel free to print this out, and use it as a free guide, while pointing and clicking your way to success:

1.Privacy 2.Design 3.Popularity and Reputation 4.The Short Form 5.Communication 6.Points, Fees, Terms and Rates

1.Privacy:

In modern world of ecommerce, it is essential that all respectable businesses honor your right to privacy:

a)Check for a posted PRIVACY POLICY, prominently displayed on homepage of your prospective lenders site. Read it. Does it make sense to you? Does it address how they will use your email address, your name, and your private information?

b)Do they ask for things that may seem unreasonable at this stage of game? Be wary of requests for credit card numbers, social security numbers, and similar information that may not be appropriate early on, for example, when you are filling out initial, short form. Naturally, your lender will need that information down road, but certainly not right out of gate, when initiating first steps towards a relationship with you.

c)Is lender a member of a posted, third party, privacy program? For example, TRUSTe is one such independent company that will designate a member site. You can look for their emblem, and similar third-party companies. This is not a requirement for securing a good privacy policy; however, it is worth noting.

2.Design:

The storefront of online world, is website. Therefore, it is important that you examine sites design, and evaluate it, much same way that you evaluate an office or store as you walk in front door. Let me give you a couple things to consider:

a)Is it a fast-loading site, or are you waiting forever?

b)Is it straightforward or elusive? Can you glean important, direct information from homepage, or does site appear to coax you in deeper?

c)Are you inundated with pop-ups, pop-unders, and other in-your-face ads, or does site seem helpful?

Remember, how lender presents themselves online, is a reflection of their business philosophy, and it tells you a lot about what kind of lender they may be, after you sign on bottom line.

3.Popularity and Reputation

I’m sure you learned in high-school, that popularity and reputation aren’t everything. However, just like in real world, it is important to gather information on these two key points, and use them as a gauge.

a)By typing your lenders URL into http://www.alexa.com, you will be able to ascertain how popular your lenders site is, because Alexa will tell you how much visitor traffic site gets. This isn’t a science, and popularity isn’t everything. For example, an extremely popular website could treat you like a number, and a relatively new lender or smaller institution, might not be frequently visited, but still be a perfectly viable choice. So, review popularity alongside rock-solid common sense.

There are multitudes of ways to lose your personal information. You have undoubtedly heard of many of them. Fake web sites, data theft, stealing people’s trash, stealing people’s outgoing mail, check fraud, etc., are just a few of possibilities for loss of information. Job ads are also being used for Identity Theft. Monster.com ranks fake companies posing as real companies on their web site among their biggest problems.

So, to you who think that it could never happen to you, you might want to read this next sentence twice. No matter how good you are, no matter how vigilant, no matter how much you shred or tear, no matter how many times you go to post office so that you don't put outgoing mail in your home mailbox, regardless of how well you can hide in your home, there is no 100% effective defense against Identity Theft. Let me say that again, in case you don't read it twice. There is NO 100% effective method to defend yourself against identity theft.