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Compare personal loans

How to find the loan that suits you best

  • Choose from dozens of personal loans
  • Your credit score won’t be affected
  • See your chances of being accepted

What is a personal loan?

Personal loans are a way to cover large, one-off expenses up front – things like cars, weddings, holidays or major home improvements. They’re also useful for consolidating your other debts into a single monthly repayment: helpful if you’ve got several smaller sums outstanding and the admin is getting tricky.

But with so many packages and providers, it can be fairly tricky to work out which loan will suit your needs best. That’s where MoneySuperMarket comes in: we compare loans from across the market, and help you make the decision that’s right for you.

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How do personal loans work?

Generally speaking, personal loans are unsecured, so you’re not putting your possessions up as collateral. This limits how much you can borrow – it’s usually up to about £25,000.

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Choose your provider

Your first step is to pick a lender. You can get a loan from banks, building societies, credit unions or even specialist finance firms

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Credit check

Once you’ve settled on terms you like, your lender will check your credit score, to make sure you can be relied on to repay the loan

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Agree terms

Your chosen lender will offer you an interest rate – how much extra you’ll pay back, and a timeframe in which to meet your monthly repayments

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Pay it back in time

Repayment terms vary considerably, but you’ll usually be repaying the loan in monthly instalments across a period of between one and five years

Personal loans: The pros and cons

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    Quick access to money

    You’ll have the money within days of being approved – so you can make your purchase or consolidate your debts quickly

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    Flexible repayments

    You can choose how long you want to be paying your loan back for, with terms that range from a few months to five years or longer

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    Rebuild your credit score

    A personal loan can help to build up your credit score if you make sure to meet your monthly repayments every time

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    Higher interest rates

    Interest rates on your repayments are often higher when a loan is not secured against collateral, making it more expensive overall

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    Hard to borrow with patchy credit

    If your credit score is low, or you’ve defaulted on another loan or debt in the past, you might not be approved for an unsecured loan

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    Penalties if you default

    There are repercussions if you miss repayments or stop them altogether, which can include black marks on your credit or legal action

With a pre-approved loan, the deal you see is the deal you get

When you apply for a loan, it’s not always clear what deal you’ll be offered or whether you’ll be accepted. But when you’re pre-approved for a loan, you know the deal you see is the deal you’ll get – you’ll know where you stand, with information that will help you make the right choice.

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Apply with confidence

When you’re pre-approved, the loan amount, duration and interest rate are all confirmed

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Tailored to you

When you know what you’ll be able to borrow and how much it will cost, you can choose a loan that’s right for you

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You’re in safe hands

This helps protect your credit score as you’re less likely to be rejected when you apply

Alternatives to personal loans

If you can't get a personal loan, or you’d prefer to borrow at a lower interest rate, there are other finance options available.

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Secured loans

If your patchy credit history stops you getting loan offers, you may be able to take out a secured loan. This lets you offer an expensive item like a house or car as security, so the lender knows they can get their money back if you stop making repayments. Of course, if you do stop paying the loan back, you stand to lose your security.

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Overdraft facility

If you only need to borrow a temporary amount and know you can pay it back within a matter of months, arranging an interest-free overdraft on your current account might be the answer. Unless you're a student, most banks won't offer much more than £500, and you'll be expected not to stay in the red for long, but it's a less risky option.

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Credit cards

If you only need to borrow a smaller sum for a shorter term, paying for it on your credit card is a decent alternative to a personal loan. Many credit cards offer 0% interest on borrowing for mid-size purchases for up to about three years, while others offer 0% balance transfers for a fee, if you need to consolidate your debts.

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For bad credit

Don’t despair if your credit rating isn’t as good as you need it to be to take out an unsecured personal loan: there are options available. You might be able to find a secured loan with a higher rate of APR, or you could try a guarantor loan, where a friend or family member promises to pay your debt if you default.

We compare offers from a wide range of lenders from across the market

We work with a wide range of providers. Including most of the big brands to help you borrow the money you need

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How to compare personal loans

Find the right loan for you and see which rates you’ll be guaranteed to get:

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It doesn’t take long

Tell us a little about yourself, your finances and the loan you want

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We’ll browse the market

We’ll search through loans from a wide range of lenders on the market

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Choose your loan

You’ll be able to sort loans by the overall cost and the likelihood you’ll be accepted

An unsecured loan isn’t tied to any collateral, so you’ll need at decent credit score to qualify. There is also often a maximum amount you’ll be allowed to borrow.

A secured loan is tied to an asset of yours as security. For example a mortgage is a type of secured loan, and the asset is the house you take the mortgage out on – when you repay the loan the house is yours, but if you don’t repay then the lender could seize your home.

Taking out a personal loan is as simple as approaching a lender and submitting a few details. They’ll perform background checks on your credit history and let you know if you’re eligible.

The real trick is finding the right provider, which is where comparison sites like MoneySuperMarket come in. We will run checks across dozens of personal loan providers, so you can find the best loan for you.

Personal loans are useful if you need a quick injection of a few thousand pounds in order to make a substantial purchase you might otherwise be unable to afford.

You have to be able to prove to the lender that you'll be able to meet your repayment responsibilities, however, so unsecured personal loans are not suitable for people with bad credit. If you're not sure you can make your monthly repayments, a personal loan may not be for you.

An interest-free or low-interest credit card is a decent alternative to a personal loan, especially if you only want to borrow £1,000 or less.

People with good credit ratings can often find credit cards offering up to three years interest free, so if you always meet your minimum monthly repayments, a credit card will be a cheaper way to borrow money.

If you need several thousand pounds, a personal loan is a better – if more expensive – bet.

The amount you’ll be eligible to borrow will depend on your personal circumstances and credit history, but it’s usually only up to £25,000.

The length of your loan can vary on the type you take out and the provider you choose, but it could be anywhere between one and 10 years. Taking out a loan for a longer period of time may reduce your monthly payments, but you end up paying more in interest payments.

You’ll need a good credit history to be accepted for loans with decent terms, but some providers offer loans designed for people with poor or no credit. For example, you can get guarantor loans, in which someone else commits to make your repayments if you can’t.

A soft search or soft application is a way of finding out where you stand in terms of getting a loan without leaving a mark on your credit report. It’s a way to find if you’re eligible for a loan without harming your chances of being accepted.

Missing repayments can mean a fine from your lender, and it could also end any low- or zero-interest incentives you have. You may also see your interest rate increase.

APR, or your Annual Percentage Rate, is the interest rate at which you pay back money you’ve borrowed. It takes into account the actual interest rate you pay, plus any other fees or charges involved in the deal, to give you a more complete picture of what you loan will cost.

When you see a rate advertised as the representative APR, this means the lender is required to offer this rate to at least 51% of applicants – however it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to receive this interest rate yourself.

If you’re struggling with your finances and you think you might not be able to make your repayments, you should call your lender as soon as possible – they may be able to help you work out an easier repayment plan or a repayment holiday. Not letting your bank know could mean you’ll be penalised for missing any payments.

MoneySuperMarket gives you lots of clever ways to save a lot, by doing very little.

  • Take control of your credit score by checking and improving it for free with Credit Monitor
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But you might have other questions. Do we provide access to all the companies operating in a given market? Do we have commercial relationships or ownership ties that might make us feature one company above another?

We commit to providing you with clear and informative answers on all points such as this, so we have gathered the relevant information on this page.

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