When considering a personal loan there is a choice to be made between secured or unsecured loans. This choice is available only to homeowners, so if you are a tenant your only option is an unsecured loan. This is the first benefit of unsecured loans:
1. Unsecured loans are available to tenants
Choosing a secured loan means that the loan is tied to your property. This creates problems when you want to move house (the secured loan will need to be repayed) and also if you get into difficulties making repayments which could put your property at risk of repossession. This is the second benefit of an unsecured loan:
2. Unsecured loans are not tied to your property
Unsecured loans also have some drawbacks which you need to be aware of when making a decision about them.
3. Unsecured loans have a maximum repayment term of 7 years
For small unsecured loans this will not represent too much of a problem but if you are looking at borrowing tens of thousands of pounds, for a new extension for instance, the repayments over seven years can be huge. Secured loans can be taken over 25 years meaning that your repayments will be reduced considerably.
4. Unsecured loans usually mean higher rates
Because lenders do not have any security to back up the loan they tend to charge higher interest rates to reflect the increased risk they are taking. Even with interest base rates at their lowest rate of 0.5%, APRs on unsecured loans are incredibly high. This is a consequence of the banking crisis which also affects number 5:
5. Unsecured loans are harder to get
Lenders are being more cautious (overcautious?) about who they lend to following their past bad decisions meaning that even people with good credit histories are finding it hard to get an unsecured loan at a decent rate.
At Unsecured Credit we offer our customers a choice of secured or unsecured loans. Although the market is difficult at the moment there are signs of recovery, with more lenders getting involved, and this does mean your chances of getting a loan are increased.
Using a broker like ourselves, rather than your bank, means that you have access to a number of lenders in one go backed up by our expertise in the loan market. One phone call or completing our simple online enquiry form is all it takes to get a free, no obligation quote.