Smartfinans, Your Partner in Norwegian Financial Information

Your financial journey can always use proper navigation to help with all the possibilities and options out there. At Smartfinans.no, our goal is to be the go-to destination for Norwegian consumers who want to learn about personal finance.

In addition, we help to develop a database of information and support on just how to shop for and compare different types of financial products, such as loans, insurance, utility providers, and a lot more.

We have made the site entirely free to use and encourage our visitor base to return frequently to see what new updates we've posted or financial information we've discovered.

Our information can help you finalize a major decision, whether it's to secure a mortgage, finance your car purchase, or other topics related to finance. Yet, of course, as a source of unbiased financial truth, we do not provide any one of these services ourselves; we merely help aggregate the existing offerings and showcase their pros and cons to those interested in growing their personal finance knowledge.

Our final piece is offering data sets, tables, and a wealth of information to become a centralized, one-stop location for all relevant and localized financial and personal financial information.

1. Mortgages

A critical part for many in the home purchasing process is that a mortgage can help fellow Norwegians obtain their dream home and build out their equity and wealth through low-interest repayments. Yet not all mortgages are the same, and it's essential to take one's time to make a comparison of all available mortgage options based on exactly how they might qualify.

Although there are two major types of mortgages in Norway, "annuitetslån" and "serielån", they each have their very own variations, associated costs, and interest rates that change with each mortgage provider. Understanding what your payments will certainly look like and whether to take shorter or longer-term loans are essential to know before making this financial decision.

Once it's made, it means you're dedicated to repaying that mortgage, whether it's 10 or 20 years long. Also, as you can see, interest rates can always change and shift, depending on the overall state of the local economy. Not to mention a mortgage rate going up just one percentage point can set you back several hundred thousand Kroner of interest over the life of the mortgage.

Smartfinans will certainly help decrypt the complexities of mortgages and how payments and rates will affect you. We provide up-to-date comparisons on what is the best option for your specific financial situation. We then dive deeper right into explaining what you can do to help reduce your mortgage after you get one and what it looks like if you utilize your home as a method to extend additional credit, whether for repairs or future real estate investments.

2. Car Loans

One might think that car loans are a similar process and offering to mortgages. Although there are some similarities, car loans are a lot smaller and have shorter terms than mortgages. Also, because a house is often not being utilized as collateral, the rates of the car loans will usually end up being higher than mortgages.

Your car loan will certainly also rely on the age of the car, as there are certain limitations on how old a vehicle can be before going to a financing representative or bank to be able to get a car loan for a used car.

Car loans are also obtainable beyond the bank, as specific automotive dealers and third-party alternatives can help to secure financing for your next car. Unfortunately, this makes the overall market very competitive, and difficult to decide through the chaos of information which loan is right for you.

Smartfinans is here to have the most readily available comparison of all the readily available car loan offerings and their series of interest rates and terms. So you can save thousands of Kroner simply by taking some time to look at lower fixed rates and working within your budget and not merely purchasing the most recent and most expensive car out there. We'll also help provide you with tips and tricks to compare if it's better to save up for your car or pay interest on a loan for over ten years.

3. Personal Loans

You might see a lot of new lending start-up companies coming up with ads that state exactly how quick you can secure funds through a personal loan. They can seem tempting and safe, even though you may not be going through a banking financial institution.

And why not merely get a personal loan, fund a lavish holiday, or take some time off from work to work on yourself? We at Smartfinans are the first to tell you that we would rarely recommend a personal loan as an option.

Why is that? It should be a no-brainer if it seems so rapid and straightforward, right? Personal loans will usually carry really high-interest rates and shorter terms, meaning that you will certainly end up with very high monthly payments. These have one of the greatest rates because they are entirely insecure, and you are effectively paying a lot to borrow money.

Even though we may not recommend it, we'll still exist to help Norwegian consumers find the best possible personal loans out there. We'll help you avoid anything that looks predatory, like lending, where the rates are so high, it may appear you'll never ever have the ability to pay them back.

Amongst popular providers of consumer loans in Norway, we find DNB, Bank Norwegian, Komplett Bank, Instabank, and Sbanken. Our helpful and easy-to-understand comparison charts will certainly be available to show you instance loan amounts with what the market rates look like, and hence what your payments will certainly look like. We'll help to provide educational articles to help to find alternative lending products to keep your financial health secure.

4. Credit Cards

Another type of unsecured loan is credit cards. They in fact will usually carry the highest possible interest rates, yet they are significantly different from personal loans. In personal loans, one is borrowing the entire amount upfront and requires to start making monthly payments immediately.

On the other hand, credit cards work as revolving lines of credit, and you only pay interest on what you spend and if you do not pay off the card on time. So you'll be paying greater interest, however it won't always seem that way.

Yet credit cards are an excellent option for several reasons. Whether you're looking at Visa, Mastercard, or American Express, each of these cards includes its very own benefits. As an example, you can join bonus reward programs, and if you're using your credit card for daily investing that you would certainly be doing anyway, after that those reward points will grow extremely quickly.

The redemptions can be specialized travel bonuses, cash rewards, and other incentives based on the chosen credit card. In addition, a few of these credit cards come with benefits beyond the reward points of the reward program, such as bonus points with certain airlines, access to airport lounges, discounts on car rentals, and even extra insurance for travel-related items.

As many local Norwegian consumers understand, Norway is not a big cash-based economy, so you'll be using your debit card for many transactions. Here at Smartfinans, we'll help you strategize how using a credit card (as long as the revolving amounts are paid off in time) is the smarter way to go about it.

Of course, credit cards, like other sorts of unsecured loans, need to be used with discipline and sparingly; or else, you'll quickly see exactly how expensive those high-interest rates can be on your unpaid credit card balances.

5. Investing

An aspect lost upon many is the best way to grow an investment fund. It seems like a far-fetched idea for many Norwegians to have such a thing as it appears to be only for the wealthy. Well, at Smartfinans, there are many methods to be able to start investing, and it doesn't take a great deal of money.

Investing is essential, and we show you the different ways to start, grow and maintain your investments. Even that savings account that you put away a few funds per month will grow and gain tiny interest over time.

That's your start foundation. We'll then expand right into sophisticated investments such as the local and foreign stock market, what bonds are, and why they should be part of your portfolio. Also how real estate and property can be an excellent source of stable returns and a way to obtain payments back to you as a consumer.

Smartfinans will be here every action of the way, reviewing traditional investment methods and showing examples with our easy-to-read tables of what the return on investments might look like.

Once in a while, we'll also look at alternative kinds of assets that are trending and show the benefits, prospective mistakes, and dangers of those kinds of investments. As constantly, we'll only be explaining how the investments will be working and won't be really recommending a specific investment vehicle.

6. Insurance

We may often really feel that insurance looks like throwing away your hard-earned Kroner every month, and there are small to no benefits. After all, the core items such as health insurance are constantly largely taken care of, so what else would certainly there be?

Here at Smartfinans, our company believe that having the appropriate kind of insurance is always a good idea. Specifically as we get older, accumulating a strong insurance history can help in case of those major emergencies that can take place in life.

So whether it's additional health insurance for extremely specialized treatments or travel insurance when going abroad, we'll take a look at the various flavors of insurance there are for you. This will also consist of disability insurance and, ultimately, one of the essential insurances out there for families: life insurance.

With insurance, the sooner you figure out which ones are necessary, it's good to start paying into them now. The benefits can improve over time relying on what type of insurance you've picked. Smartfinans will certainly be your overview in explaining which sort of insurance you require and which you may want to pass upon.

7. Electricity suppliers

We've all seen our utility bills going up and wondering if there'll be any kind of alleviation quickly. As the energy price most likely will continue to rise in the near future, Smartfinas will be your partner in looking for those hidden deals and cost-saving utility partners.

Smartfinans will certainly work tirelessly to see what the changes are with the existing electrical company options and help compare the cheapest option because, after all, the electricity is the same despite how much you end up paying for it.

8. Charging Systems for EVs

We Norwegians love our renewable energy initiatives, and that's why eight out of ten cars in Norway are electric. There's rarely a day where we don't see an EV or Tesla being driven around. That's why a number of us may want to consider purchasing a charging system for our EV.

At Smartfinans, we'll help our fellow Norwegians look for the right providers (such as Easee and Zaptec) and provide clear breakdowns of what costs and savings connected with these charging systems will look like.

9. The Best Hotels in Norway

Our final sphere of support at Smartfinans will certainly be to help provide local Norwegians (and those looking to visit) with the best hotel options in the major Norwegian cities. We'll be providing reviews and updates to the most popular available hotels in these cities, as well as continually work towards providing you with means to save money through discounted prices.

In The End

Smartfinans is everything about consistency and relevancy. When you visit our site, you'll be growing your personal financial education as well as obtaining the most recent information on the overall economic scene in Norway.

In addition, we'll be covering new financial products as we learn about them, and allow you, our community, understand what you would best use them for and if they are worth your time. Our objective is to bring a much more straightforward method for you, the consumer, to always be as informed as possible in finding the best provider for a given product or service.