When you need cash, you might consider doing things you’d usually try to avoid. No, we’re not talking about anything illegal here—there are plenty of ways to get the money you need without breaking any laws. Take loans, for instance. Loans are an excellent way to keep yourself financially afloat when you’re between paychecks if you’re careful about how you use them. For those of you with iffy finances, though, you may find that you’re having trouble qualifying for most of the low risk, low-interest loans out there. If you’re pondering your other options, here’s an idea you may or may not have considered—think about taking out a car title loan.

We know how worried people get about car title loans. After all, it can feel almost like you’re gambling with your vehicle, and for many people, their car is an integral part of their livelihood. Don’t think of it that way, though—it’s not gambling if you have a strategy in place to pay the loan back.

Here’s how a title loan works: you fill out an application and have your vehicle appraised by a loan company such as Embassy Loans. You submit a few supporting documents to prove that you own the vehicle. Then a few days later, once Embassy approves the loan, you exchange the title of your vehicle for a predetermined amount of money. When you repay the money, you get the title back. If you don’t pay it back in time, the loan company takes your vehicle.

That last part can scare a lot of people away from title loans, but there’s no reason to be afraid of them. It’s all about the timing. If you know for sure that you have money on the way, taking out a title loan is fine. You’ll be able to pay it back without any trouble when the time comes, and until then you’ll have the cash you need. What you don’t want to do is use a title loan like a credit card, and borrow with no idea of when you’ll be able to make good on the debt. That’s how people lose cars, but in most cases, they only have themselves to blame for not taking the time to understand the conditions of their loan. Go in with your eyes open, and you should be just fine.