In an emergency situation, speed is of the essence. It’s one of the reasons title loans are so popular among those hit by financial crisis. The title loans Arizona and neighboring states use are fast and convenient, and their premise is simple: they leverage the value of your car as collateral for your loan amount, giving you a chance to get back on your own feet.

So if speed is of the essence, you may ask yourself what’s the fastest way to find "title loan near me?" The answer is online store locator that will route you to the title store closest to you out of the dozens of our stores scattered across the state. The title loans Arizona and you need are at your fingertips with our store locator. Before you run off and get your title loan though, there are a few more things to think about and consider, and steps to take.

Bring What You’ll Need

Compared to tradition loans, title loans have a minimum of paperwork and requirements, but you will need to bring three things to a title loan store before you can get a title loan.

• A driver's license or other state-issued I.D. The idea behind this is pretty simple: the store needs to make sure you are who say you are, and can legally make the decisions you’re making. If you don’t have a driver’s license, then another state-issued I.D. like a passport will serve just as well.
• The lien-free title to your car. Lien-free simply means that you own the title of your car without any prior debts or claims to it. You will also need to be the only person on the title; if there’s a second person, that person will need to come with you since they legally partially own the car as well.
• Your car itself. Once you arrive at the title loan store your car will go through a quick on-site inspection to evaluate it’s worth and how high of a title loan you’re eligible for. Key to the value of your car is it’s make, model, year, and condition. Those four criteria form the basis of its loan worth.

Get An Idea How Much Your Car is Worth

While there’s no way to know for certain how much your car will be appraised for, and thus how large of a loan you’ll be eligible for, you can get a rough idea by inputting your car’s make, model, and year into an online directory like the Kelley Bluebook to see roughly how much it’s worth.

Though it will vary from company to company and store to store, the loan you’ll be eligible varies from around 25-50%. The title loans Arizona offers vary wildly, so having this knowledge is highly useful as it gives you an idea of whether it’s worth making the trip to a title loan store to begin with, and to plan ahead on how to use your loan if you get it.

Think About How Much Debt You Can Handle

Even in a hurry, it’s worth taking a minute before driving to the title loan store to think about how large of a debt you’re going to be able to pay back in a reasonable frame of time. This doesn’t have to be an in depth exploration of your finances; something as simple as jotting a budget on the back of a napkin will do.

The simplest way to find out how large of a loan you can afford is to tally up your monthly income, your monthly expenses, and once you subtract the second number from the first see if the resulting number matches your loan payments. If it doesn’t, then you’ll need to think about cutting your expenses so that you’ll be able to pay off your loan before the interest on it becomes prohibitive.

Be Precise In Your Spending

Too often we fumble in the moment. Especially in emergencies, it’s hard to think straight, and the last thing you want to find is that you took out a title loan and then let small expenses sap the amount away so that you don’t have enough remaining to deal with the biggest problem confronting you.

Because of this, it’s worth taking a moment either before or after you get your title loan to sit down and list out the things the loan could be spent on, and then order them in most important to least. This will keep you focused and keep your money from being spent needlessly.

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