Bad credit? Let’s see if we can find you a loan

Aro is a credit broker, not a lender. This means that when you check your loan, credit card or car finance options through us, we use smart decisioning to quickly check your details against our lenders’ eligibility criteria and find you suitable borrowing options.

This very much depends on your individual circumstances. When it comes to personal loans, lenders will look at your credit score to decide whether to offer you a loan and determine your interest rate. Generally if you have bad credit, you will be charged a higher interest rate.

If a personal loan isn’t an option for you, you may still be able to consider:

• Guarantor loans
• Homeowner loans
• Credit builder cards

Although your credit history does play a big part in your eligibility for finance, there are other factors that a lender will consider, such as your income, expenses, the size of the loan you are looking for, how much debt you already have and your homeowner status.

Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help go to moneyhelper.org.uk

36.8% APR Representative (fixed)

Representative example: 36.8% APR Representative based on a loan of £12,500 repayable over 48 months at an interest rate of 36.8% pa (fixed). Monthly repayment of £500.83. Total amount repayable is £24,039.67.

Yes, it is possible to get a homeowner loan with bad credit. This is because lenders secure the loan will against your home, adding an extra layer of security for the lender.

With a homeowner loan, you can borrow from £10,000 to £500,000+ and spread the cost over 1 to 30 years.

Bad credit homeowner loan considerations

That said, you should think carefully before securing finance against your home. If you are unable to repay your loan, as a last resort your lender could repossess your property to recover their funds. To be eligible for a homeowner loan, you’ll need to be a homeowner with equity in your home.

Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help go to moneyhelper.org.uk.

Second-charge mortgages 14.26% APRC Representative (variable). Representative example (if you choose to add fees to the loan): assumed borrowing of £25,000 over 7 years, plus a broker fee of £2,850 and lender fee of £367.50 would result in monthly repayments of £509.96, the borrowing rate is 12.78%, the APRC is 14.26% (variable), total charge for credit would be £14,619.14 and the total amount payable would be £42,836.64. Aro is a credit broker and not a lender. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any other debt secured on it.

If you would like to learn about what gives you a bad credit score, check out our blogs, guides and FAQs.

When you check your loan options through us, we run a soft credit check. This doesn’t affect your credit score in any way and is not recorded on your credit file.

When you check your eligibility, we try to show you as much information as possible after just a soft search, including real rates and your chance of approval.

Not sure what we mean by real rates? Check out our guide, What are real rates?

If you are eligible for finance, you’ll then see your loan options. If you decide to apply for a loan, your chosen lender may then run a hard credit check. This type of credit check is recorded on your credit file.

Whether or not you can get a loan with a low credit score depends on your personal circumstances and the finance options available to you. For instance, if you’re a homeowner, you may have more borrowing opportunities available.

As lenders may consider you more of a risk to lend to if you have a lower credit score, it’s likely that you’ll be offered a higher APR, or you may not receive a borrowing option at all.

If you have a low credit score because you’ve not borrowed money in the past but have a high amount of disposable income, you may want to consider using Open Banking to show to a lender that you can afford to take out the money you want to borrow.

You can also use our online eligibility checker to find out what options are available to you before applying for any finance. Our eligibility check won’t affect your credit score. From there, you can decide if you want to take steps to try to improve your credit score before choosing a lender, as this may improve the APRs and options available to you.

Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help go to moneyhelper.org.uk

Yes: with a credit card, your credit score can go up. But only if you make at least the minimum repayment on your credit card each month. As a result of that, it’s possible that your credit score would ultimately improve over time.