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Secured loans with bad credit

You should be able to get a secured loan even if you have a bad credit rating. Find out how they work and compare costs.

The UK's largest range of secured loans

  • Loans from £1,000 to £2,500,000
  • See your quote before you apply
  • Quote won’t affect your credit score
£
years
£
£
Table: sorted by overall cost for comparison (representative APRC)
1 - 10 of 138
Name Product Maximum LTV Loan amounts Loan terms Overall cost for comparison Repayments
Evolution Premier Ranger Tier 1
75%
£35,000 to £100,000
3 to 20 years
11.7% APRC
£550.45
(£59,448.57 overall)
United Trust Bank Ltd 1st Charge Mortgage-Remortgage
70%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
2 to 30 years
8.3% APRC
£511.93
(£55,287.91 overall)
United Trust Bank Ltd 1st Charge Mortgage-Remortgage
75%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
2 to 30 years
8.4% APRC
£520.48
(£56,211.43 overall)
United Trust Bank Ltd 1st Charge Mortgage-Remortgage
70%
£25,000 to £500,000
2 to 30 years
8.8% APRC
£524.63
(£56,660.14 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
60%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
9.7% APRC
£538.02
(£58,106.41 overall)
Together Flexi BTL 1st Charge
65%
£30,000 to £1,000,000
4 to 30 years
9.8% APRC
£538.44
(£58,151.21 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
65%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
9.8% APRC
£541.18
(£58,447.18 overall)
Together FLEXI BTL 1ST CHARGE
75%
£30,000 to £2,500,000
4 to 30 years
10% APRC
£542.43
(£58,582.26 overall)
Together Flexi BTL 2nd Charge
75%
£30,000 to £1,000,000
4 to 30 years
10.1% APRC
£542.64
(£58,605 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
70%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.1% APRC
£546.46
(£59,017.6 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
60%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.3% APRC
£549.64
(£59,361.34 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
60%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.4% APRC
£551.77
(£59,591.1 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
75%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.4% APRC
£551.77
(£59,591.1 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
65%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.4% APRC
£552.83
(£59,706.16 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
65%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.6% APRC
£554.97
(£59,936.64 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
70%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.7% APRC
£558.18
(£60,283.3 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
70%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
10.8% APRC
£560.32
(£60,514.99 overall)
Together Flexi BTL 2nd Charge
65%
£30,000 to £1,000,000
4 to 30 years
11% APRC
£561.77
(£60,671.07 overall)
Selina Selina FlexiLoan
75%
£25,000 to £1,000,000
5 to 25 years
11% APRC
£563.55
(£60,863.46 overall)
Together FLEXI BTL 1ST CHARGE
75%
£30,000 to £2,500,000
4 to 30 years
11.1% APRC
£563.7
(£60,879.83 overall)
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Please note: You should always refer to your loan agreement for exact repayment amounts as they may vary from our results.

Late repayments can cause you serious money problems. See our debt help guides.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other loan secured on it.
Overall representative example
If you borrow £43,000 over 16 years at a rate of 10.25% variable, you will pay 192 instalments of £505.18 per month and a total amount payable of £96,994.56. This includes the net loan, interest of £49,404.56, a broker fee of £3,995 and a lender fee of £595. The overall cost for comparison is 12.7% APRC variable.

If you’re looking to borrow money but worried that your credit rating might get in the way, a secured loan could be your best option. Using your house as collateral against the loan makes you more likely to be approved, even if you have bad credit.

If you don’t own a home, you may want to consider a bad credit personal loan.

What is a bad credit secured loan?

A secured loan lets you use your home as collateral against the cost of the loan. Also known as a “homeowner loan” or “second charge mortgage”, if you fail to repay your loan, the lender can take ownership of the equity you have in your home.

A secured loan generally offers a more competitive rate than an unsecured loan, as there’s less risk to the lender that it can lose its money.

Much like in the unsecured loans market, a number of lenders have carved out a niche for themselves by focusing on secured loans for people with poor credit.

Are secured loans easier to get?

Putting up security can help borrowers with adverse credit to access a wider selection of loans. As well as making it easier to get approved, applying with the backup of the equity in a home can help applicants to access larger sums and/or lower rates.

Because lenders have the reassurance that they’re less likely to lose their money, your credit rating becomes a less crucial factor in the approval process. What’s still crucial, however, is that you can comfortably afford the monthly repayments.

Will lenders want to check my credit file?

Yes, almost certainly. However, many secured loan companies focus less on your credit score – with some even touting secured loans with “no credit scoring”. In reality, this means that the lender bases its decision (at least in part) on your credit history. For example, when it looks at your history of payments in the last 12 months, if you’ve missed 1 payment, that might be fine. But if you’ve missed 2, you might be declined.

Most lenders can use a “soft search” (a credit check that doesn’t impact your credit score or leave a footprint visible to other lenders) to give you a good idea as to whether it’s worth applying.

As with many other types of loans, secured loan interest rates are more often than not tailored to the individual applicant’s circumstances. In other words, if your credit file has taken a few bumps along the road, you might be offered a slightly higher rate than the lender’s marketed rates. Once again, a soft-search eligibility checker can also give you a clearer idea of the rate you might be offered.

While lenders promote their advertised “representative APRC”, keep in mind that this is the maximum rate that 51% of customers will receive – the other 49% could be given a higher rate. Lenders must tell you your personalised APRC before you sign any agreement with them.

Pros and cons of a secured loan for bad credit

Pros

  • More likely to be approved. If you have bad credit, you may find it hard to be approved for an unsecured loan. Using an asset as collateral reduces the level of risk for the lender and improves your chances of getting a loan.
  • More competitive rate. A secured loan will likely have a much lower rate than an unsecured loan, especially for someone with bad credit.
  • Better loan terms. Compared with an unsecured personal loan, you can generally get longer loan periods and higher maximum loan amounts.

Cons

  • Higher risk. If you fail to repay your secured loan, you may lose the equity you have in your house or even the house itself. You’ll also likely make your credit score even worse.
  • Must have equity in your house. Secured loans require you to have an asset to use as security, and this is almost always your house. If you don’t have equity in your house, you generally won’t be able to apply for a secured loan.
  • Loan size may be limited. The loan amount is limited to the amount of equity you have in your house. If you only have a small amount of equity, you’re unlikely to get a large loan.

Am I eligible for a secured loan?

As with any loan, there are a number of eligibility criteria you need to meet to be considered for a loan. Criteria vary from lender to lender, but as an absolute minimum, you’ll need to be:

  • At least 18 years old
  • A UK resident
  • A homeowner with a mortgage

What are my other options with bad credit?

If you don’t qualify for a secured loan or don’t want to use the equity in your house, you still have a couple of other options:

It may be just as easy and cost-effective to remortgage – this depends on how competitive a mortgage you’re on now vs how competitive a mortgage you could get. For example, if your credit score has deteriorated since you arranged your current mortgage, and you’re on a fantastic low rate, then you may prefer to get a new second-charge mortgage for a smaller amount rather than switching your whole mortgage to a new, less-competitive deal. By contrast, if you’re on your bank’s “standard variable rate”, you might be able to borrow more at the same time as securing a better rate across all your borrowing.

Alternatively, you may be able to get an unsecured loan for bad credit. Without offering the lender security, the maximum amount you can borrow will be much lower – perhaps around £10,000-£15,000, and the interest rate is likely to be higher – perhaps around 15% to 25%

Another option is a guarantor loan. By using a friend or family member (who has good credit) as a guarantor on your loan, you’ll reduce the risk you represent to the lender, which means you’re more likely to be approved for a loan. Guarantor loans typically only go up to £10,000, however, and can come with interest rates over 30% even though you’re giving the lender the reassurance of a guarantor with good credit.

One way to improve your credit score while borrowing is by using a credit-building credit card. If you can show a credit provider that you can responsibly manage your credit account, you’ll be able to improve your credit and make yourself more likely to be approved for a loan. However, these cards typically come with low initial credit limits – typically below £5,000.

Finally, if you can wait 6 months or more, then it may be worthwhile to focus on improving your credit score first and checking the market again to see if you’re eligible for better deals. Services such as Loqbox offer a free way to boost your credit score while you save.

Can I use another asset as security?

In theory, yes, you may be able to use another form of collateral with certain secured loans. However, many lenders (including those we’ve compared in this guide) only consider customers looking to use the equity in their house as security.

Bottom line

If you have bad credit, you may struggle to get an unsecured loan. A secured loan may be a viable alternative as the assurance of putting up a house as collateral reduces the risk falling on the lender, provided you have a sufficient amount of equity in your property. However, despite a lower risk to the lender, this option provides a higher risk to yourself. Failure to repay the loan could lead to losing the equity you hold in your house or even your home altogether.

Frequently asked questions

We show offers we can track - that's not every product on the market...yet. Unless we've said otherwise, products are in no particular order. The terms "best", "top", "cheap" (and variations of these) aren't ratings, though we always explain what's great about a product when we highlight it. This is subject to our terms of use. When you make major financial decisions, consider getting independent financial advice. Always consider your own circumstances when you compare products so you get what's right for you.

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