When you apply for secured loans, there is little you can choose. Banks are far more stringent than private lenders. Home loans are usually repaid in twenty to thirty years. The terms are usually a multiple of five. You can get a home loan with a term of eighteen years or twenty three years but the norm is fifteen, twenty, twenty five and thirty years. A similar norm applies to car loans. You are likely to get three or five years. Banks usually do not have a cluster of different repayment terms. They prefer order and semblance so their products and services are more easily manageable for them.
Private lenders are much more flexible and hence there is a greater spectrum of choice. You can choose anywhere from two months up to thirty six months to repay short term loans. These are unsecured short term loans and you can choose the exact repayment period. You can choose seven months if you want. You can also choose fifteen months. Any odd or even number is fine as long as you qualify for the loan and the lender agrees to offer you the term you choose. Not all lenders will oblige obviously but many will. Hence, it is necessary you make an informed choice.
When lenders put forth a term and a borrower accepts, the calculation of the installment and whether or not the latter shall be able to afford it every month is the most important consideration. Now, a lender does not know about every liability a borrower may have. It is only the borrower who knows exactly how much one earns and what all expenses there are every month. It is thus the borrower who is best placed to decide the repayment term. You can do the math, assess your affordability, account for unexpected expenses and then infer how much you can conveniently repay every month. This should be after factoring in the interest and other charges. The installment and whether or not it is conveniently affordable is the driving force here, not a personal preference for a certain period of time to repay.
It is likely some lenders will not agree with the borrower and propose other terms. A borrower should assess the pros and cons of the proposed term and only accept it if the scenario will not lead to any financial distress. Mismanagement of loans is one of the most common causes of a bad debt.