Personal loans.

It's a fixed sum you borrow and repay over a set term, commonly somewhere between one and seven years. A home loan is tied to a property and a car loan is tied to a vehicle. A personal loan isn't tied to any one purchase, which is what makes it useful when the thing you need to fund doesn't fit neatly into a category.

Most of the things life throws at you. Renovations, a wedding, travel, medical costs, or a bill that turned up at the worst possible time. It's also a common way to roll several credit card balances into one scheduled repayment, which can make the debt easier to keep track of and easier to finish paying off.

That comes down to your income, your regular expenses, your existing commitments and your credit history. Lenders each set their own minimums and maximums. Rather than pushing for the largest figure available, we'll work out the amount that gets the job done without stretching your budget to breaking point.

A secured loan is backed by something you own, such as a car. That reduces the lender's risk, so the terms on offer are generally more favourable. An unsecured loan doesn't require you to put up an asset, which suits people who don't have one to pledge, but the lender is carrying more risk and prices the loan accordingly.

A fixed rate holds steady for the life of the loan, so your repayment is the same number every time and easy to budget around. A variable rate moves with the market, which can go either way, but variable products often come with useful flexibility such as extra repayments without penalty or a redraw facility. Which suits you depends on how much certainty you want.

Lenders are legally required to publish a comparison rate alongside any advertised rate. It rolls the interest rate together with the compulsory fees into one figure so you can weigh two loans against each other fairly. If a comparison rate sits well above the headline rate, that gap is telling you the loan carries significant fees — worth asking about before you go further.

You can. If your circumstances have improved since you took the loan out, or conditions have shifted, refinancing may let you reduce what you're paying each month or clear the debt sooner. The thing to check is whether the saving actually beats the exit and establishment costs involved. We'll run those numbers with you before you commit either way.

Plenty of lenders want to see payslips and little else, which doesn't work if your income arrives unevenly. There are lenders who assess ABN holders differently, and if you can show a consistent ability to service the repayments there's usually a way through. Have a look at our Low Doc Finance page, or just call and talk it through.

Considerably. A personal loan is a regulated product with a structured term, typically one to seven years. Payday lending deals in small amounts over very short periods and carries fees that can escalate quickly, which is how people end up rolling one loan into the next. If a personal loan isn't the right answer for your situation we'll tell you, but we won't point you toward payday lending as an alternative.