£12,000 Loan Guide: Borrow 12,000 pounds today

Luckily for you, as a broker we work with lots of different lenders, from banks to building societies and finance companies, such as Santander, the Post Office and Admiral. They all offer many different loan options and eligibility criteria, so you can find the perfect lender and loan for you. 

You may be asking “how do you find the perfect lender?” And the answer is easy, by picking us as your broker of choice. We’ll let you search and compare options from a variety of lenders to find the one that’s right for you and your circumstances.

First things first, it’s important to know the differences between the two loan options. There’s an unsecured loan, sometimes called a personal loan, and a secured loan, also known as a homeowner loan. Below, we highlight the differences between the two of them in more detail.

Unsecured loan

• Your loan isn’t against an asset
• Usually suited for smaller loans
• You can borrow more than with a credit card
• You could receive a lower interest rate on larger amounts than with a credit card or other forms of credit
• Fixed monthly loan repayments make budgeting easier

Eligibility criteria

• A high credit score is desirable
• You’ll need to be aged 18 and over
• You’ll usually need a UK bank or building society account

Considerations

• You can often choose how long you’d like to repay the loan for. However, be aware that the length of repayments can affect the total amount of interest you repay
• Missing a monthly repayment can have a negative impact on your credit score

Secured loan

• Your loan is against an asset, usually your home
• You can borrow higher amounts of money. For example, with our lenders, our secured loan amounts range from £5,000 to £2,000,000
• You usually have longer repayment timescales

Eligibility criteria

• A high credit score isn’t as vital
• You’ll need to be a homeowner to qualify
• You’ll need to have enough equity in your home in relation to the loan amount you want to borrow
• You’ll need to be over the age of 18
• You’ll usually need a UK bank or building society account

Considerations

• If you fail to make your repayments your home may be repossessed
• You can sometimes face early repayment charges and administrative costs if you want to pay off the loan early

Your home may be repossessed if you don’t keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a one size fits all answer, because every lender has its own loan options and eligibility criteria. So this means your eligibility will come down to the individual lenders’ criteria and your personal circumstances.

As a little insight, lenders usually look at:

• Your credit score
• Your income
• Your homeowner status

To know more about what loan options are available to you, complete our eligibility checker.

To sum it up, your credit score is your complete financial history and reputation. If you have a good one lenders will look at you more favourably, but if you have a bad one they might consider you riskier.

If you’re considered a bit more of a risk this might impact the options you receive, or the interest rate offered. To browse the £12,000 loans that are available to you, without hurting your credit score, complete one of our eligibility checkers and run a soft check on your credit report.

If you have a bad credit score, it doesn’t mean your chances of borrowing £12,000 are over; there are lenders out there who are specifically for customers with bad credit. And we’ve got some handy guides that’ll give you helpful tips and tricks to improve your credit score.

Yes, yes you can. Thanks to our super simple tool it’s dead easy to get the ball rolling.

See the steps below:

1. Complete the questions on our eligibility checker 
2. We’ll run a soft search
3. If you’re eligible we’ll show you your loan options
4. You can browse your loan options and find the perfect one for you
5. Apply to the lender that suits your needs
6. The lender will run a hard check that will appear in your credit report
7. If you’re successful, they will offer you a proposed loan agreement
8. You can either reject or accept the loan.

A proposed loan agreement includes:

• The loan amount
• The repayment term
• Any additional fees or charges that you’ll need to be aware of
• The total amount expected to be paid at the end of the repayment term

It’s really important you take your time to carefully read through the loan agreement. You should pay extra attention to the repayment schedule and make sure you can afford it. If you crunch numbers and figure out you can’t afford it, don’t take out the loan. But if you’re happy with the agreement, you can accept it and you’ll receive the agreed amount

Once you’ve gone through all the stages outlined above, and you decide to accept your unsecured personal loan agreement, your loan should be transferred really quickly. More often than not it’ll be in your bank account on the same day. There have been occasions where it’s taken longer than a day, it’ll just depend on the lender.

This is a super important question that shouldn’t be overlooked. We really recommend you take the time to calculate everything and work out if you can afford to borrow £12,000. To do this we suggest you do the following equation:

Monthly income – outgoings (make a note of everything – mortgage or rent, bills, subscriptions, living costs, student loan, savings account etc) = disposable income

If you believe you have enough money left over as disposable income that comfortably allows you to afford the monthly loan repayment then borrowing £12,000 is going to work for you.   

Crunched the numbers and the loan repayment is too high? Don’t worry, you aren’t out of options. You can always look at getting a longer repayment term. It reduces the amount of your monthly repayments, so hopefully this will make the monthly repayments more manageable for you.

It’s important you’re aware that when you have a longer repayment term the total amount repaid at the end of the agreement will be higher.

From consolidating debts to improving your home or financing a new car, there are loads of things you can use your loan for. Below you’ll find some examples of what people use their loan for:

• Debt consolidation
• Car loans
• Wedding loans
• Holiday loans
• Home improvement loans
• Home furnishing loans
• Caravan and motorhome loans
• Medical loans

Like we’ve discussed earlier, everything comes down to your agreement with your lender. So, the total amount you have to pay back and the time you have to pay it back depends on the terms you agree to.

Below you’ll find the typical repayments over different periods.

By now we’re sure you’re an expert on everything to do with borrowing £12,000, but in case you need a little recap see the summary below.