If there is one thing that frightens me when it comes to companies hocking loans, it’s when they roll out the “Application with a bad credit history, mortgage arrears, missed payments or CCjs are welcome”.

This tells me that the company is more than likely going to be charging an exorbitantly high interest rate in order to mitigate the risk of taking on bad borrowers. If you’re lending the money, high interest rates are a good thing, if you’re borrowing, they can be a killer.

Borrowers should most definitely make use of any tools available to compare various loans and their rates. These kinds of things can be very useful in helping you avoid nasty surprises.

One of the fastest growing products in the loan industry are home improvement loans . Home improvement TV shows have a lot to answer for! Home improvements loans in the UK are taking off in a big way.

Approximately £13.9 billion in planned home improvements during half of the year were to be financed through credit and borrowing money. And this is only a portion of the estimated £57 billion total spent on home improvements during the same six-month period.

My advice, follow the simple Swollen Pickles rule of borrowing. Never borrow any more than you can afford to pay back.

This post was sponsored by the good people at UK Loans.