Christmas celebration: Here's a list of options to fund your vacation trip

Since Christmas is just around the corner and schools are also being closed for the vacation, which is carried till the New year, it is always the best period either to plan a family trip or gift something to your loved ones.
 
Several companies including auto, FMCG and e-commerce are also providing heavy discounts on their products for this festive occasion. Even airlines like Indigo, AirAsia, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and many more are selling cheap tickets, thus you have options galore to plan a trip with family and friends to your favourite destination.
 
If you don't have suitable amount to fund this vacation trip, you need not worry. There are variety of options which you can utilise to fund your trip without hampering your daily budget.
 
Personal loans
 
If you are planning to travel somewhere out with family and friends, and likely to face the burden of expense all by yourself, especially the married ones, then personal loans can be one of the options.
 
As the name suggests, personal loans comes in handy when we need money for vacation, buying something, renovating house or planning for wedding.
 
Your eligibility to opt this loan depends upon your employment type that is salaried or self-employed, your monthly income, your CIBIL score and your existing EMI etc.
 
Once you opt it, the amount gets sanctioned in your bank account within just 3 – 4 days’ time.
 
Many banks and financial institutions charge you with an interest rate of ranging between 10% - 21%. Also processing fee is normally about 2 – 2.5% on the loan amount sanctioned.
 
This option is an unsecured loan which means you don’t have to put your home, valuables on the line to get funds, and is the best used for short tenure.
 
Travel loans
 
Travel loans is another type of personal loan as it enables a person to travel to a destination for business or personal purposes.
 
Both state-owned and private sector banks in India are offering travel loans to eligible applicants. However, some banks do ask for guarantor or collateral, but usually in the case when the loan amount is in excess like Rs 2 lakh.
 
There are various type of travel loans. Firstly there is foreign travel loans which involves higher amount, then there is domestic travel loans having lesser loan amount and senior citizen travel loans under which banks have different criteria and interest rates.
 
If you are salaried, you need to be between age group of 21 - 58 years and must be working with an organisation for at least 2 years. If you are self-employed then banks mostly check your past business records.
 
For salaried ones, banks check information like address proof, identity, three month's salary, whether you have filed Income Tax Returns for at least 2 years. While for businessmen, they see ownership documents.
 
As per BankBazaar, travel loan EMIs must not be more than 40% of monthly take-home salary. They must be  repaid within a couple of years.
 
Features of Travel Loan

• Loans available from as low as Rs.10,000.
• Loan amount disbursed as per requirements.
• Loan repayment tenures ranging from 12-60 months.
• Processing fee applicable as per individual banks’ terms.

  
Loan against securities
 
If you have made an investment in any form of securities like equity shares or mutual funds, you can also opt for loan against them.
 
Banks have a list of approved shares against which they lend. The lender can loan you up to 50% of the value of shares. They create a lien against these shares and you cannot sell them.
 
Under this option, banks open a  current account with an overdraft facility and set the borrowing limit based on the value of shares. One can withdraw this amount via ATM or internet banking and can repay the amount by depositing money into the current account.
 
Use of Credit Card
 
Both salaried person and self-employed can have access to a credit card. You could use a Credit Card for travelling and shopping.
 
Banks offer you EMI facility on usage of credit cards with interest rates of around 2-3% a month. One needs to remember that if you do not make timely instalment of credit card amount, then you may end up paying higher than expected.
 
One key advantage of the credit card usage, is that many airlines, shops, restaurants provide you some discount or offers in usage of this option. These credit cards are just like normal Credit Cards but offer special benefits provided by the service provider.
 
Money from relatives and friends
 
In case you fail to fund yourself by using the above mentioned options, this option can be your last resort in fetching loans.
 
Loans from friends and relatives are usually interest-free and tenure-free and if you can make the repayments in time, then do go for it.
 
Hopefully, this solves your problem for fund during this Christmas festive season.