Margin loans are extremely powerful investment tools which can help investors accelerate their wealth in a rising or bullish market. However, just as all good things have a down side margin loans have one too and this may affect your credit report.
Margin Trading: What is Margin Lending
Before we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of a margin loan, it is important to fully understand what is margin lending. Margin loans are investment loans which are backed by the client’s securities or investments. In margin trading, typically, clients offer their investment portfolio as collateral and can borrow funds against that for a wide variety of purposes ranging from buying additional securities, to paying off bills with higher interest rates or mortgage loans for real estate and purchasing new assets such as artwork or holiday homes etc.
Margin loans gained a lot of popularity prior to the dot com era crash as it enabled consumers to purchase investments beyond what their own capital would allow them to afford. With the market seeming to raise again, margin lending once again seem to be gaining ground. A lot of brokerage houses encourage their consumers to obtain margin loans and pay down debt with higher interest margin rates as high value margin loans can be obtained for cheaper interest margin rates than most available rates in the market.
Margin Lending Rates
Margin lending rates have been know to vary between single figures for margin loans with a value of more than $1 million plus o a bit over 10% margin rates on margin lending less than $25,000. Just to give consumers an idea of margin loan rates, a large investment firm might offer margin loans at a margin interest rate of 8.0% for variable rates and from 7.9-7.95% for fixed margin rates.
Margin Trading: Advantages of Margin Lending
Obviously, margin trading is and has been very popular among consumers. Margin lending has a lot of advantages; a few of these are listed below:
- Accelerate you Wealth Quickly: Margin loans allow investors to quickly accelerate their wealth in a rising market as the value of your portfolio increases with market increases. Moreover margin lending enable investors to invest more than they have at their disposal.
- Variety Of Uses: Funds from a margin loan can be used for a variety of purposes, such as paying off bills, buying real estate and other assets or decreasing debt at a higher interest rate. Being able to decrease existing debt ensures that your credit history looks better and also reflects well on your repayment capacity.
- Lower Interest Rates: Margin lending offers margin rates on certain larger amounts that are cheaper than most other interest rates available in the market.
Margin Trading Disadvantages of Margin Lending
While margin loans have numerous advantages, margin trading also comes with its fair share of disadvantages:
- Margin Calls: The biggest disadvantage margin loans have are margin calls. Most margin loan facilities require your portfolio to be at a certain predetermined level. If owing to a fall in market your portfolio falls below a certain level, the margin loan provider can either ask you to put cash back in your portfolio or provide additional security as collateral or in a worst case scenario might sell down your portfolio to recover funds.
- Deceleration of Wealth: In a falling market margin loans can very easily increase your losses drastically. This is owing to the fact that margin loans are directly linked to your investments and they need to be paid back to the lender.
Margin Trading: Impact Credit Report
Adding further to the points stated above, although margin loans are believed not to have any direct effect on your credit report, they might have an indirect effect. If after selling down all your securities and assets, you are still unable to pay off the margin loan provider, the margin loan lender might issue a default against you or might be even declare you bankrupt. This needless to say has a very damaging impact on your credit history as it can set your credit report back by anywhere between 130-280 points back depending upon the type of charge issued on the account and rebuilding a credit report can be a tough job.
It is essential as it is with any investment to weigh your options out before making an investment decision about margin lending. One must remember that while margin loans have a lot of potential advantages they also come with their fair share of drawbacks. Investors must remember that there might be long term damage to their credit history should they be unable to pay back their margin loan obligations. Adjudicate your financial health and credit status before making decisions as it is always beneficial to have a good clean credit report.
References:
- Margin Trading: The Dreaded Margin Call – Investopedia
- Margin Loans Make A Comeback – The Wall Street Journal
