Share Secured Loans or Savings Secured Loans (SSLs) are especially valuable as part of a technique pioneered by people here on this forum. The technique is for people who have no open loans and want to raise their score -- typically by about 30 points. You can find out about the technique here. (First two posts only).
We used to recommend Alliant for someone who wants to implement the SSL technique, but they stopped offering SSLs in January. We are currently looking for alternatives to Alliant though it may take us a few more months.
In that "Quest for an Alternative to Alliant" thread, we discussed Wells Fargo today. See post #11. You'll see a link that tells you more about the WF origination fee and other details.
Some people use SSLs purely because they really want the loan to buy something with. I haven't quite understood that myself, since you have to secure the loan with an identical amount of cash in the bank. If a person has $1000 in a savings account, it's not clear to me why they'd take out a 4% loan for $1000 while making only 1.3% in the savings account (and they have to pay taxes on that 1.3% so it is more like 1%). I am probably just missing something though.
