Broadly speaking, a lender or a creditor is a loan provider, that is a person or legal entity giving funds to a borrower on the condition that they will be returned within a certain period of time and in a certain amount. The basis on which the borrower must satisfy the creditor is the contract, which specifies all the conditions under which the creditor provides the funds to the borrower. The lender has the option of assigning a loan to another person. In such a case, however, he or she must notify the borrower.

Loan default is a default on a loan agreement, i.e. failure to timely pay interest or principal on a debt obligation or under the terms of a bond issue agreement. Consequently, a person who defaults on a loan is considered a loan defaulter. Penalties for loan defaults are applied according to the type of loan and the specific terms of the contract.

The key difference between secured and unsecured loans lies in their very name. Secured loans are guaranteed by the borrower's property or assets, which protects the lender to a much greater extent. Unsecured loans do not require collateral, so there is more risk for the lender. These risks need to be compensated somehow, so the terms and requirements in unsecured loans are tougher than in secured loans.

A recourse loan or debt entails personal liability of the borrower. A non-recourse loan does not allow the lender to claim anything other than collateral. For example, if someone fails to repay a non-recourse mortgage loan, athe lender may only foreclose on the real estate that was the collateral.

Because FHA (Federal Housing Administration) loans are designed to help low- and moderate-income consumers, they have a lower down payment compared to other types of loans. More specifically, the down payment is as low as 3.5% of the loan amount.

A loan assumption is a procedure whereby the person who took out a loan to purchase real estate is willing to sell the property to a new buyer, while ceding his or her role in the loan agreement. Thus, the new buyer of real estate actually takes the place of the previous borrower in the eyes of the lender.

A loan origination fee is a one-time payment, usually ranging from 0.5% to 1% of the total loan amount, charged by the lender to compensate the costs for processing the loan application. In general, loan origination fees are not required by all loan originating agencies. In fact, they can be even negotiated before you sign a contract. In most cases, however, the absence of a loan origination fee as a separate payment simply increases the interest rate correspondingly.

Gradual repayment of the loan through regular payments of principal and accrued interest is the amortization of the debt. Specific repayment terms are determined according to the concluded loan agreement and are fixed in the payment schedule. The payments are broken down for the entire term of the loan agreement and consist of the 'principal' (original amount of the loan) and interest. The amount of the amortization charges in this case shows the total amount of repayment at the moment.

A monthly payment consists of a payment of principal and accrued interest. The principal to interest ratio may vary. If a borrower is delinquent, penalties and late payment charges may be added to the payment. There are two ways to calculate a loan: annuity and differential. To calculate the approximate amount of the payment before the loan is taken out, all you need to know is the loan amount, the interest rate and the term of the loan. It is important to consider that in fact the loan may include a number of other payments, such as for insurance or informing about the transactions. This will be specified in the loan agreement. And in general to calculate the monthly payment you can always use a loan calculator.

The interest rate is the portion of the principal amount of the loan that the borrower must overpay to the bank for using its money. The interest rate can be calculated according to an annuity or a differential scheme. In the first case, the total amount of the loan is divided into several months or years in equal installments. With the second, the rate is charged on the balance of the loan and decreases with each month. Rarely a bullet scheme is utilized where the interest and the principal amount of the loan are repaid separately (first the principal and then the interest, or vice versa). If the rate changes at contractually specified periods, it is considered floating. If newly accrued interest is added to the interest calculated for the previous period (interest-on-interest scheme), it is considered capitalized.

Loan security is a mechanism for guaranteeing the repayment of a loan, which protects the rights of the creditor. A borrower can leave some tangible assets (such as a car or real estate) as security for a loan, which then becomes a secured debt to the creditor who issues the loan. Thus, the loan is secured, and if the borrower defaults, the creditor takes possession of the asset used as its security.