A Beginner’s Guide to Personal Loans

How to get a personal loan: One of the best ways to get a personal loan is to deal with the lender directly. Most lenders now seem to have application forms that you can fill in over the web, however, if you do not have access to the internet it can be just as easy to head down to your local bank in order to sort out the loan. How to get a good rate: A good idea is to compare a variety of deals on offer and the easiest way to do this is by searching price comparison websites over the internet. It is important that you are aware that newspaper quotes are usually for larger loans, such as; £5,000 or £10,000, so if you are looking at borrowing less than this, expect the rates to be higher. The APR: Annual Percentage Rate, or APR, is the standard way of calculating a loan's interest rate. Beware that some places may offer a 'typical APR' rate and this may be offered to around two-thirds of customers, however, a third of people may get stuck with a higher rate. Credit records: It has to be said that in the current climate, lenders are more wary of lending to those with a poor credit history, having said this; it is still possible to get a loan as long as you are willing to pay a high rate of interest. Therefore, it is definitely worth checking your credit history before applying. This applies for all loans no matter which you are lending, be it personal loans or unsecured loans for example. If you do have your loan application rejected it is not recorded on your credit file, however, each application you make is recorded, so if you make a lot of applications over a short space of time you are more likely to be rejected. The lesson to take away from this is to only apply to lenders who you think will accept you.

Something to be aware of is that the rates listed in newspapers are usually for larger loans so you should expect that the rates for smaller loans will be higher. It is always worth checking your credit history before applying for a loan no matter what type of loan it is, be it personal loans or unsecured loans for example.