An overview of the most popular loan types available in the UK market today – PART 4

Debt Consolidation Loans – otherwise known as secured loans!

Debt consolidation loans can theoretically be unsecured loans or secured loans, but due to the lack of affordable credit in today’s market, most debt consolidation loans will be secured loans. This is also due in part to the size of debt consolidation loans usually being greater than £5000. Clearly the interest rate for debt consolidation loans must be less than those of the debts being consolidated, which probably excludes unsecured loans in most cases due to the reasons explained above.
People often accrue different forms of debt over time, some of which can grow rapidly unless carefully managed. The reason for this is that certain debts not only attract significant interest charges, but also substantial fees for late payments or unauthorised overdrafts. In these circumstances, it is important to take responsibility and actively mange your finances very carefully. Making the right decisions at the right time is imperative if finances are tight. Debt consolidation loans are just one solution but the borrower must pay attention to the following if considering debt consolidation loans or secured loans in particular :

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An overview of the most popular loan types available in the UK market today – PART 3

Unsecured Loans

The title unsecured loans puts some people off. However it refers to the lender’s lack of security not the borrower’s so it is actually a positive attribute.

Unsecured loans (otherwise known as personal loans) are less risky than secured loans but this does not mean they are risk free for the reasons mentioned above. Unsecured loans are harder to obtain because they rely on the credit rating of the individual borrower.

Unsecured loans are generally for an amount between £1000 and £25000 and the borrower can choose a repayment period usually between 1 and 5 years.

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An overview of the most popular loan types available in the UK market today – Part 2

Secured Loans

Secured loans are much maligned by certain commentators so let’s try to understand why? A secured loan is where a borrower nominates an asset (usually their house) as security for the lender in the case of default. The main argument against secured loans is “why risk your home if there are other options?”, such as unsecured loans or personal loans. The other main argument used against secured loans is that people often borrow the cash over much longer terms (up to 25 years), which massively inflates the total amount of money that has to be repaid, which is arguably avoidable.

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An overview of the most popular loan types available in the UK market today – Part 1

Summary

Since this is our first posting on our new Blog, we thought we should start by decribing the different types of loans available (not just guarantor loans!) and outlining the pro’s and con’s of each while at the same time discussing some of the more misleading descriptions out there such as “no credit check loans”. Choosing the right loan for you should be straightforward if you follow some basic guidelines. No matter what anyone tells you, never pay an upfront fee, irrespective of the type of loan you are looking for or your credit profile. This is unnecessary – hopefully upfront broker fees will be outlawed shortly by the OFT – we live in hope!

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