When financial troubles hit, there’s little as useful to have at your disposal as a ready reservoir of cash. All emergencies take money to fix, and that’s what makes fast loans so key to dealing with them. With cash at your fingertips, hospitals visits, car accidents, and job loss can all be rectified and the financial hit abrogated so it doesn’t throw you into a downward spiral.

The two best avenues for cash in financial emergencies are undoubtedly payday loans and title pawns. Both are fast and convenient and accepting of the kind of credit scores that are usually frowned on in traditional lending institutions.

Can they be combined though?

It’s an interesting question. After all, aren’t all the best things in life better when mixed together? And sometimes the financial challenges that are thrust upon us are simply too much to surmount with a single infusion of cash and is better handled with multiples fast loans.

Better Together?

The simple answer to whether you can combine the two is that you can indeed. The reason this is possible is because both types of loans, payday loans and title pawns, are secured by different things. In the case of a payday loan, the amount of your loan is secured by your next paycheck, and in the case of a title pawn it’s the title of your vehicle.

What other differences do the two types of fast loans have?

• Loan amount. The biggest difference is in the size of the loan you’ll be eligible for. Payday loans can snag you up to $500, while a title pawn can go as high as $15,000 on the upper end depending on the value of your car.
• Required items. The items you’ll need to bring into the store when applying for either loan type are very different. Both require a state issued I.D. such as a driver’s license, but that’s where the similarity end. A title pawn will require your vehicle’s lien-free title and the vehicle itself, while a payday loan requires a bit more: your most recent pay stub, social security card, thirty day bank statement from your checking account, and a blank check from an active checking account in your name.

If You Had To Choose...

While you luckily don’t have to since the two types of fast loans can be combined, if you had to choose between the two different types of loans, what criteria should you consider?

• The value of your car. This is a big one, since it will determine what kind of dollar amount you’ll have access to. While title pawns can potentially loan you significantly more money than a payday loan, that’s entirely dependent on how much your car is worth. That itself is determined by the make, model, year, and condition of your car. Before deciding between the two loans, take stock of roughly what kind of condition your vehicle is in.
• Understand the risks. While payday loan and title pawn companies are often willing to work with you should you have difficulty in repaying your loan, all loans should be taken seriously and the cons as well as the pros well understood before you take one out.

Thinking Ahead

Now that you’ve got your financial problems stowed away and dealt with, it’s time to think about the next step: prevention. How do you prevent another financial emergency? There’s a few simple steps.

• Understand what went wrong. This one is pretty straightforward. What caused this financial emergency to flare up? Fixing a problem is all about understanding what went wrong and taking steps to make sure it won’t happen again, and that can’t be done without taking a frank look at what happened.
• Spend on prevention. There’s a saying that goes a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that’s true in every aspect of life. If for example, your current financial emergency was an infected tooth, then in the future it’s worth it to shell out the few bucks for regular dental cleanings to prevent it getting that bad again.
• Create an emergency fund. An emergency fund is a dedicated bank account that you contribute to monthly so that when a financial emergency does hit, you have the money to deal with it. They’re insurance against a rainy day essentially, and even saving a little each month can add up to a substantial amount over time.

Note: The content provided in this article is only for informational purposes, and you should contact your financial advisor about your specific financial situation.