Bankruptcy

The interest rate charged on a loan, credit card, or mortgage over a year's time

A legal declaration of one's inability to pay his/her creditors. In most cases, voluntary bankruptcy is initiated by the individual in debt (the debtor); in rare cases, creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor to initiate an involuntary bankruptcy.

The failure to pay back a loan or a credit card balance.

A number, generally ranging from 300 to 900, that is used to assess the creditworthiness of an individual. The number is statistically generated from information about the individual collected by credit bureaus.

An application process that allows the applicant to know whether they are approved in a short amount of time, usually in less than one minute.

A type of loan that gives the borrower different loan terms on his/her current loan, such as a different interest rate, a new monthly payment amount, and/or cash out from equity.

A financial institution taking back possession of an object that was either used as collateral on a loan or financed or leased by the institution. For instance, failure to pay a car loan results in the repossession of the car by the company that financed the loan.