Borrow Money UK - Borrowing Options In The UK

There are many options available for anyone wishing to borrow money in the UK, as indeed there are in the US too. Different companies and organisations specialise in different types of lending, from short term payday loans, to consolidation loans for debt and larger loans secured against assets. The most common way to borrow money is through a personal loan, where the money may be required for any one of a whole range of reasons, such as a new car, holiday or item of furniture.

A growing number of people these days are borrowing money because of personal debt. When debts mount up and it becomes a struggle to meet all the payments, a common course of action is to seek a debt consolidation loan. The principle behind consolidating your debts is that you use the new loan to pay off all your old creditors, leaving you with just a single new payment to deal with.

Apart from the fact that it is much easier to deal with only one payment, the other main advantage of a debt consolidation loan is that the new payment should be lower than the total of your previous repayments. Care must be taken, however, to ensure that the payments are not just less because the loan is spread over a much longer period, otherwise you can end up paying back much more in the long term.

It is also important that the interest rate on the new loan is actually lower than for the old debts. The best way to ensure this is to list out all your existing debts and the interest rates you are paying, then only consolidate those debts which are at a higher rate than the proposed new loan. Do not be tempted to automatically include every existing debt you have in the consolidation loan.

Payday loans are relatively new to the UK, but well established in the US. These are a specialist form of borrowing that often does not require a credit check. Payday loans are always for small amounts of money and for very short periods of time. They are useful for dealing with small unexpected emergency expenses, but should not be seen as a way to deal with cash shortages due to ongoing debt problems. If they are used to cover ongoing shortages, the same problem will arise each month, which can lead to more and more borrowing. The other thing to be aware of with payday loans is that they should always be paid back on time, as the penalty charges are often extremely high.

An alternative type of loan which is available to people with bad credit ratings is homeowner secured loans. These are only available to people who own their own property and are a way of borrowing money which is secured against your home. What this means is that the debt is legally bound to your house, so if you do not keep up with repayments, the lender can arrange to have your house sold off to get their money back. The fact that there is the security of your house attached to the loan means that the lenders are less worried about poor credit ratings, and are often happy to lend much higher amounts of money.

Whatever type of borrowing you require, one of the most important things to remember is to always approach two or three different lenders and compare what they can offer, to ensure you are getting the best deal. When deciding which lenders to choose, you should take care to deal only with established and reputable companies, who have a track record of successful lending and happy customers.

Find recommendations for US and UK lenders for homeowner secured loans.