One of the most notorious bank and would go to any lengths (eg: mexican drug lords) to make money..Avoid
This offer yet to be confirmed and as always advertised rate and won't surprise if they not offer to 51% and still go on advertising.

applied £15 k, and instantly got the money in my account with 3.3% interest!! Thanks

I don't trust ANY bank so I may as well go with the one offering the best deal.

Let's take a hypothetical choice between:

A more expensive loan with one of the 'so-called' socially responsible bank that costs an additional £200 in interest over the term; or

A cheap loan with HSBC and a £200 donation to charity

In the above scenario, I have no doubt in my mind that the second option is the one that's more socially responsible.

One of the most notorious bank and would go to any lengths (eg: mexican drug lords) to make money..Avoid
This offer yet to be confirmed and as always advertised rate and won't surprise if they not offer to 51% and still go on advertising.

No- that's why I suggested it. Islamic Bank of Britain are very oppressive to muslims who want a mortgage and their profit rates are some of the poorest. They are in this game for themselves. "Fair banking" just does not exist.

Bank of mum and dad?

I've had the loan when the offer was at 3.7% can I ask them for the difference ?

is there such a bank?

Naive question, so don't beat me to it - but can I use a personal loan to put for a deposit on a home mortgage - or does that have an impact on my mortgage eligibility?

Nice thanks

Very good idea on the 0% balance transfer. Refinance loans are very useful and often people do it, so yes it would be a good idea to repay an existing loan with this loan if it were a lower rate, you'd save yourself a fortune if the late were substantially lower on this loan and the cost of repayment is usually tiny. It's not digging yourself a bigger ditch unless you double your lending and can't afford to pay for example.

Last year they had 3.4% offer and i needed a loan for house improvement. It took me 10 minutes to fill the online form and another 10 minutes before the funds got transferred upon approval( i am HSBC customer ). To me it was good deal.

Ha ha

You'll never get this loan rate with them. It's just a draw.

If you're a HSBC Advance or Premier customer, you also get 10% cashback on interest payments on personal loans.

If you have relatively good credit score, you should perhaps look at a balance transfer credit card. Say you get an £8k limit, you could easily find a card to pay it off at 0% for x number of months and it'll only cost the transfer fee:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards

Even if you get one for 24 months and pay off £100 / month, once that rate ends simply apply for another balance transfer offer with different bank and do the same thing. It's a bit of work (realistically only takes a few mins), but it's much cheaper than a loan mate. Hope it helps.

Why wouldn't you just BT any credit card debt you are paying interest on? Think u can 23 months with no fee, or 39 months with a fee that'll work out much less than the interest in this...

Great deal if you can get it. Hot from me will look into further.

IIRC Nationwide promise to beat any quote by .5% if you hold a current account with them.

That's what I was wondering. Say I had a 7k loan now at 6%, would it be worth the 'transfer'. I didn't think loans had that many hidden fees, then again I've only ever had 1 loan.

Max 60 months vs Marks and Sparks 84 month loan max..

I wonder if it would be beneficial to pay off an older loan with this.

gave me 8.9% so I said no thank you very much!

M&S bank are doing the same rate..3.3%

A personal loan is an unsecured loan and a mortgage is a loan secured on the value of the property. Typically a secured loan has a lower interest rate but with a 0.5% BOE Base rate the rates on both types of loan are getting quite close but as LittleishOne mentioned its all about affordability.

Been like that for ages. A friend who is a Business Manager told me that the rates are not solely depending on the credit score but on the internal indicative limit.
Age is another factor.
75% of people applying are not getting 3.3%.
Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot - that makes a lot of sense.

Thanks - that makes it clear indeed

A correction there, its not dependant on your score but your credit history. Your score is figure which only you see so have a score of 999 doesn't mean you will get the best rates. In any case your score will be different with the other 2 reference agencies if they use them.