Business

Taft Financial Personal Loans Get Bad Reviews

Published

6 years ago

December 16, 2020

Taft Financial’s unrealistic personal loan offers are getting bad reviews from multiple personal finance web sites. Crixeo, the popular news and review site, has done a review of Taft Financial and has raised the question if Taft Financial ever honors the 3.09% APR or is it simply part of a long-running bait and switch scam . According to Crixeo journalist Ed Miles:

“The story is the same. They lure you in by sending you direct mail with a “personalized invitation code” and a low 3.09% APR to consolidate your high-interest credit card debt into a new personal loan. You will be directed to My Taft Financial website. More than likely you will not qualify for one of their personal loan offer and they will try and flip you into a more expensive debt product.

A personal loan is a handy tool that can enable you to consolidate your debt, make a large purchase, pay your bills, and essentially, make your life easier. However, as much as personal loans can be used for pretty much any reason, it does not mean that you should take them out.

When you take out a personal loan, you are taking on debt. Hence, the reason behind taking a personal loan should be legitimate and good enough. For example, taking out a personal loan to finance a vacation does not qualify as a good enough reason.

Therefore, if you are confused about whether you should take out a personal loan based on your financial situation, then read this guide. It will highlight what a personal loan is and when you should opt for one.

However, be on the look out for the financial scams that seem to appear in your mailbox every other day.

What is a Personal Loan?

A personal loan is a predetermined amount of money that a lender gives you for a set period. During that time, it needs to be paid in fixed monthly payments. A personal loan also comes with a fixed interest rate.

The amount of loan and interest are determined based on various factors, including the borrower’s income, credit score, and financial history. You get the amount in full, which you can use, and then make monthly payments to repay the loan. This helps you budget and manage your finances efficiently.

Reasons Why You Should Take Out a Personal Loan

1. You Need Funds Fast

Typically, an application to take out a personal loan is online and can be filled quickly. The approval for the application and the funds all get transferred pretty quickly.

For this reason, taking out a personal loan can be a good idea if an unexpected expense hits you that you cannot afford. This can include a loved one’s death, medical expenses, a leaky roof, or an unanticipated auto repair. A personal loan can be a great idea in these types of situations since you can get all the funds in less than 24 hours.

2. For Debt Consolidation

One of the most common reasons why people opt for a personal loan is for debt consolidation. This is when individuals have multiple outstanding debts with high balances that they need to pay to creditors, typically when they have a lot of personal debt and are in need of credit card relief. Taking out a personal loan helps to pay off all these outstanding debts all at once. This streamlines your finance and makes them easier to manage.

A benefit of doing this is that personal loans have lower interest rates than credit cards, which helps you save hundreds of dollars in the long term. Moreover, it allows you to improve your credit score as multiple credit card debts harm your credit score.

3. You Want to Finance a Major Purchase

If you want to make a large purchase, such as buying a car, yacht, or motorbike, you might be tempted to swipe the credit card and purchase it. However, a better alternative is taking out a personal loan to finance the purchase instead and use credit cards for short-term expenses only.

This is because the longer you take to pay back the debt on your credit card, the more interest you will have to pay. However, that is not the case for personal loans as they have fixed interest rates which do not increase.

4. You Want To Make Investments

It may not be a completely wise decision to take out a personal loan and use it to make investments because of the increased risk. This is particularly true if you plan to invest in the stock market.

However, if you are confident in the positive outcome of your investments, and if you still want to use the loan to invest, then you can. However, we must reiterate that it is not a wise decision because all of your borrowed money can go to waste if you do not make a profit from the investments.

5. For Home Remodeling and Repairs

Many people turn towards personal loans when they want to fix and make repairs around the house. They also do it even when they want to remodel the house. Some of the reasons you might want to take out a personal loan for home remodeling and repairs are to repair your furnace, get a pool, and fix a leaky roof.

If you are confident that you will pay the loan back, then it would be a good idea for you to take out a loan and use it for remodeling and repairs if you do not have the money upfront.

6. To Pay for Education

College tuition is costly. Hence, it would be helpful for students to take out a personal loan and use it to pay for their education and other related costs. In certain cases, a personal loan is a better alternative to a student loan. For example, there are restrictions on a student loan, and you cannot use it for other purposes besides education. Contrastingly, a personal loan is not that restrictive. Moreover, a personal loan has a lower interest rate than a student loan.

7. To Pay the Bills

In certain situations, there is not enough money to pay for your day-to-day bills. If you have exhausted every other option, then you can consider taking out a personal loan to pay for them. However, this is only a good option if you can find a loan with a very low-interest rate and are confident that you can pay it back.

The Bottom Line

Personal loans are an excellent option for a lot of reasons. However, you should be mindful that they have to be repaid after a certain amount of time; otherwise, they may have a negative impact on your credit history. For this reason, you should only take out a personal loan when you really need to.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.