Personal Loans

Personal Loans. If you need to raise a bit more capital for a bit longer then a personal loan is probably a better bet than plastic or an overdraft. All the banks and building societies are in a price war on loans now that they have been joined by so many new providers – from the Post Office and insurance companies like Direct Line to supermarkets and specialist providers like Egg, Goldfish and Intelligent Finance.



You can check best-buys on websites like www.moneysupermarket.com and apply online or by phone. You shouldn’t be charged set-up fees on a personal loan, interest rates are fixed at the outset and in general the more you borrow the lower the rates will be. But watch out for added extras like payment protection insurance. This promises to meet your repayments if you lose your job or are too ill to work. But premiums can be costly and some independent commentators think the plans are bad value. If you are self-employed the ‘job loss’ protection won’t cover you anyway, so it’s probably best to get a quote without the insurance. You can go to any provider to get a personal loan, but the likes of Barclays, Halifax and HSBC sometimes offer slightly better rates to existing customers. Get a quote if you are already with one of these banks and then compare it with rival offers elsewhere.