A secured loan is a loan that requires some sort of collateral. You can use security assets or any type of personal property as the collateral. You can use something of value such as a car or your home or maybe bonds that you may have. Check with the lending company and see what they consider to be collateral and then you can see if you have anything on their list.

An unsecured loan is a loan given by a financial institute that does not require you, the receiver of the loan to put up any collateral. This however does put a higher risk to the lending company. The lender company may require a co-signer on the loan to decrease the risk of the loan not being paid back. If the primary lender falls back on a loan then the co-signer will be responsible for the repayment.

If you are borrowing money as a student loan or educational loans then these types of loans are also unsecured loans. In the case that you have a federal loan then the federal government does promise the repayment of the loan. Unsecured loans can also be credit card charges and personal lines of credit.

What type of loan you choose to apply for is up to you. If you don’t think you have any worthy collateral then you may want to try for an unsecured loan. If the amount is low enough the lender may not require a lender. You want to make sure you get a good rate; the range in the United Kingdom is from 6.2 percent to a whopping 11.4 percent. Some of the best places to try to get a loan in the United Kingdom are from Northern Rock, NatWest, Direct Line, Nationwide BS, Halifax and Lloyds TSB.