How to get a loan

From buying a car to funding a wedding, helping to pay off an outstanding debt, or making improvements to your home – personal loans can help pay for those essential investments that life often throws our way.

However, there are a number of considerations you need to bear in mind when it comes to applying for a personal loan.

What do you need to apply for a Personal Loan?

According to the responsible lending rules included within the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Consumer Credit sourcebook – lenders must undertake an assessment of the creditworthiness of any potential borrower.

This is determined by a number of factors:

• The type of loan
• The loan amount
• The financial position of the person seeking the loan
• The customer’s credit history
• The customer’s existing financial commitments
• Any future changes in circumstances which could impact the customer from a financial standpoint

Therefore, before you apply for a personal loan, it is important that you are confident that you can afford the monthly repayments.

Besides running an assessment of your overall creditworthiness, lenders may also have their own eligibility criteria you need to fulfil in order to get a quote or apply e.g. minimum age or income requirements.

Remember to have your address history for the last three years, annual income, employment details, residential status and bank details handy – lenders will need this information to check your identity and creditworthiness.

Applying for a Personal Loan with Shawbrook Bank

With Shawbrook, you can get a quote for a personal loan without affecting your credit score.

That’s because we use something called a soft credit search, which assesses your credit profile without leaving a footprint visible to other lenders.

What’s more – when you apply for your instant quote for a personal loan, we’ll let you know your guaranteed personal rate from the very beginning. This is an important element of our five-point Transparency Charter.

This is built on our commitment to providing an honest, upfront, open, clear and fair service for all of our customers.

With a Shawbrook personal loan, you can manage your loan repayments with a guaranteed fixed rate upfront. Our simple online application means you could get a quote in minutes without impacting your credit score.

How to get accepted for a loan

Different lenders may have differing eligibility criteria for their loan products. Before applying for a loan there are some things you might want to consider that could help to improve your chances of being accepted.

Before you start your application, you should consider the following:

• Ensuring you meet the eligibility criteria.
• Checking your credit report and looking to improve your credit rating.
• Ensuring you provide accurate details when completing application forms
• Being realistic with the amount you can borrow and your repayment terms.
• Holding fewer loans or other forms of credit at the same time.
• Having an appropriate loan purpose.

The criteria to meet

In order to apply for a personal loan with us, you’ll need to meet our eligibility criteria:

• Aged between 21-75 years
• You have been a resident in the UK for a minimum of 3 years
• Minimum annual income of £15,000
• Own a UK personal bank account

If you tick all of these boxes, you should be able to apply for your instant quote. However you will need a number of personal details readily available for you to enter into our online application form.

This includes:

• The details of your addresses for the last three years, as well as your actual residential status (owner occupier, living with parents, council tenant or tenant).
• Email address and contact number.
• Employment details, including income and salary.
• The loan amount.
• The loan term.

It’s also useful to bear in mind the fact that you can make either a single application or a joint application depending on your specific situation.

How long does it take to apply?

Once you fill in the online form and if you are eligible, you’ll instantly find out your guaranteed personalised rate. Based on this information, you can then decide whether you want to proceed with your application and continue along with the process – which is when we’ll ask you for your bank account details.

If you’re happy to proceed, you can accept the quote and formally apply and allow us to complete a full credit search. We will validate all the information you have supplied and if you are accepted, we will then send across the loan documents including any important information you need to know about your loan. Make sure you read this carefully before signing the loan agreement.

Once you’ve signed and returned the loan documents, the money will appear in your account within 3 working days from when we receive your signed loan documents.  

Our focus on consistency and delivering the best possible service for our customers is reflected by our position as a Feefo Gold Trusted Service. We have also won awards for best unsecured loan lender.