But one loan broker company has just announced the addition of a new provider or secured loans to its panel of lenders, with a new product for the secured loans market.

The secured loan broker, Loans Warehouse, have said that they are now offering a new loan product to customers from the provider Equifinance, who are offering a market leading secured loan deal for borrowers, even those with a poor credit history.

The new secured loan deal is now available through Loans Warehouse and offers secured loans of up to 75 per cent loan to value, even for those individuals with an impaired credit history, including County Court Judgements (CCJ’s), unlimited past arrears on home owner loans and mortgages and loan arrears on unsecured loans and credit cards.

The loan deal is available to any owner occupier, even on a semi commercial property and will ignore any previous loan defaults, CCJ’s and current arrears on unsecured loans and cards. The product is also open to self employed borrowers who are able to show adequate income for the loan.

The new loan product is only available through the services of a loan broker or financial adviser, therefore anyone looking for an adverse credit secured loan will need to seek professional advice on the matter.

Matt Tristram of Loans Warehouse said “The secured loans market has for some time offered clients with poor credit a way of borrowing money not available through re mortgaging but our new product from Equifinance offers something extra.”

A recent survey from the equity release loan broker, Responsible Equity Release, has found that somewhere in the region of 36 per cent of all equity release loans being taken out at the moment are being used to repay existing debt on outstanding home owner loans and mortgages.

The number of people using an equity release loan to repay their previous loans and debts has seen an increase of 31 per cent over the course of last year, compared with the figures for the previous twelve months.

Responsible Equity Release said that the main reason for this trend was due to the fact that more people are getting to the end of their home owner loan to find that their endowment policy or other investment vehicle has not performed well enough, leaving a shortfall on their loan. The other main reason was due to higher living costs which have meant home owners have not been able to afford to make overpayments on their loan.

A further 23 per cent of equity release loan customers said that they were using the funds to help family members who were struggling to pay off their own loan debts, or to help fund a larger deposit for those looking for a new homeowner loan.

Responsible Equity Release said that the number of enquiries they receive had increased by 91 per cent over the course of the past twelve months.

Steve Wilkie of the loan broker said “Five or six years ago, the majority of people releasing equity did so to improve the quality of their retirement, but these days a growing number of equity release loans are bein used simply to make ends meet.”

These individuals are contacting people who have applied online for a personal loan, claiming to be from Cheap Loans and telling people that they have been accepted for a loan and that the money will be in their account within a short time. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT FROM CHEAP LOANS!

The applicant is then asked to send a money transfer voucher, such as U Cash, Moneygram, or Western Union, for example. The explanation for this could be for various reasons such as: admin fee, first repayment amount, tax, or to prove that the applicant is able to pay the loan.

These people may seem very convincing, but if you receive a call of this nature it is a scam- you have not been approved for a loan and they will just take your money and possibly come back for even more.

Cheap Loans will only pass client details to a reputable loan broker, who will then contact you and will not ask for any fees in this manner. Cheap Loans will NEVER contact you directly or charge up front fees for a loan.

If you have been contacted in this manner DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY!

You may contact Cheap Loans directly via the contact page on our website if you require more information and you should contact the police immediately, giving them as much information as possible.

But the latest figures from the Bank of England have shown that many people seem to be taking their personal loan and credit card debts more seriously, as the amount of outstanding consumer credit on unsecured loans and credit cards actually fell over the course of December last year.

Although the levels of consumer credit increased by around £0.4 billion as a six month average up to the end of last year, the figures for the month of December alone showed that the overall amount of unsecured loan and credit card borrowing fell by £0.4 billion.

This shows that many people were making a serious attempt to reduce their personal loan and card debts in the run up to Christmas, at a time when people are traditionally taking out new loans and running up large balances on their credit card.

Within the consumer credit market, which includes unsecured loans and credit cards, the twelve month average growth rate fell by 0.7 per cent to reach just 1.8 per cent.

Within these figures, the amount of credit card borrowing for the month of December remained around the average figure for the whole of the year, however, the amount of borrowing through unsecured loans fell by £0.4 billion.

At the same time, gross lending on home owner loans and mortgages increased by £13 billion throughout the month of December, which is significantly more than the six month average figure of just £11.9 billion worth of new loans.

But new research from the Halifax has shown that buying a house and making repayments on a home owner loan is actually significantly cheaper than paying rent each month for the equivalent type of property.

In fact, typical repayments on a home owner loan or mortgage are around 16 per cent, or £116 a month, cheaper than paying rent on a similar property, according to the figures from the Halifax.

In December last year, the average cost of paying a home owner loan on a three bedroom house was £600 per month, whereas the average rent on the same type of property stood at £716 per month.

The Halifax have said that the reason for the drop in the cost of buying a house is largely due to the fact that house prices have fallen significantly since 2008 and that, due to the particularly low base rate of interest from the Bank of England, there is now a wide choice of cheap loans available for potential buyers to choose from.

However, although the monthly loan cost of buying a house is much cheaper than renting, the problem for many would be buyers is still that of being able to raise a suitably large deposit to meet lender’s strict criteria on maximum loan to value levels.

In addition to the large deposit requirement, other fees also include solicitor’s fees and things like valuation fees and stamp duty, which all add to the cost of the home owner loan when buying a house.

However, whilst home owner loan rates remain low and are expected to do so for some considerable time, the average rent has increased at a rate of 9 per cent since 2009.

Despite their popularity, pay day loans have rarely been very far from the headlines, particularly due to the high rates of interest which are often charged on this type of loan and the potential for unmanageable loan debt caused by “rolling over” existing loans into new pay day loan agreements.

There have been many calls from consumer charities for the government to introduce legislation and to place a cap on the number of times a pay day loan can be rolled over and although the government have not introduced any such regulation, one trade body has introduced its own code of conduct for pay day loans.

The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) has now introduced a new code of conduct for its members, which limits the number of pay day loan roll overs to a maximum of three.

The UK’s largest pay day loan company, Wonga, has signed up to the new code of conduct from the FLA, which comes into effect on Wednesday this week. However, Wonga are the only pay day loan company which is a member of the FLA and therefore no other pay day loan companies are likely to take on board the new code of conduct at the moment.

Despite this, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills are both investigating the practices of short term loan companies and may well introduce legislation in the near future which forces other pay day loan companies to adopt a similar approach to Wonga.

Those borrowers who are seeking advice and want to get the best deal they can on a new loan, often use the services of a financial adviser or a loan broker, who has access to a much wider range of the loan market, including lenders and loan deals which may not be available to the public directly.

But new regulation which is being introduced within the loan industry, particularly for home owner loans under the Mortgage Market Review (MMR), cold make it more difficult for even loan brokers and advisers to find a suitable bad credit loan for their clients.

A new survey amongst loan brokers and advisers found that 53 per cent of them said that they did not place a single bad credit loan case with a lender over the course of last year, whilst a further 30 per cent said that they were able to only place around 25 per cent of bad credit loan cases.

12 per cent of loan brokers said that they were able to place 75 per cent of their adverse credit loan cases and only 3 per cent said they did not have a problem placing bad credit loans for clients.

One Independent Financial Adviser said “I’m surprised that more loan brokers aren’t having difficulty placing cases for people with imperfect credit records. It’s bad enough trying to get a loan approved for somebody who has got no adverse credit, let alone someone who has.”

“On the back of these results, I would be encouraged to think that there is hope for these types of borrowers. But I can’t imagine that the levels of adverse credit that we’re talking about here would be anything major like bankruptcies and countless CCJ’s”

Whilst products such as investments, protection, pension and home owner loan and mortgage products are all regulated by the FSA, one area which is outside this regulatory regime is that of consumer credit, which includes unsecured loans, credit cards and overdrafts.

Unsecured loans and other consumer credit areas are currently regulated under the consumer credit act, by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which does not offer the same level of consumer protection and advice, as other financial products which come under full FSA regulation.

The latest financial services bill is to be enacted shortly and this will see the end of the FSA, which is to be replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Services Consumer Panel has proposed that unsecured loans and other consumer credit areas should be fully regulated by the new authority, once it comes into force.

Although the panel believes that unsecured loan and consumer credit regulation should be transferred to the FCA as soon as possible, they have also said that preserving the existing protection arrangements for consumer credit must be the over riding priority for the personal loan industry.

It is hoped that the plans will enhance consumer protection for those taking out personal loans and overdrafts, but new regulation could also make it harder for some individuals to get the loan they require and others may be excluded completely.

Adam Phillips of the Consumer panel said “The panel is calling for a common sense reform that will enhance consumer protection. Transferring the Consumer Credit Act powers to the FCA will make retail financial services regulation work in the way that most people expect.”

The unemployment rate in the UK has increased from 8.3 per cent to 8.4 per cent, which is the highest level since 1996, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).The total unemployment figure in the UK now stands at 2.685 million people, an increase of 18,000 over the course of the three months to November last year.

With personal debt levels on things like unsecured loans and credit cards at an all time high, many people who are currently unemployed, or face the prospect of losing their job, will be unable to manage their loan repayments on a regular basis, as many are already struggling to stay on top of their loan debts even with a full salary coming in.

Those people who took out some form of loan protection in the event of unemployment, could have their loan repayments covered for a limited period, but many borrowers have simply not bothered taking out this type of cover, either due to the recent bad press surrounding such policies, or on the grounds of keeping their loan costs as low as possible.

This is a particular problem for young people between the ages of 16 and 24, as almost a quarter of this group are unemployed, whilst this same group has some of the highest loan and credit card debt across all age groups, based on a percentage of earnings.

For those facing unemployment and problems with their personal loans and other debts, it is important to seek professional help and advice as soon as possible in order to try and avoid serious loan arrears and a bad credit rating.

A new survey, conducted by the Resolution Foundation, has shown that somewhere in the region of one third of the UK population intend to cut back on their spending over the course of this year, as almost a quarter of us expect our personal financial situation to get worse as the year progresses.

Back in October last year, a similar survey found that around 19 per cent were planning serious cut backs on their regular expenditure, however this figure has now increased to 32 per cent, as the gloomy financial outlook and post Christmas blues are forcing people to take stock of their finances and loan debts.

In the October survey, around 12 per cent of people said that repaying their personal loan and credit card debt was a priority for them. However this figure has now increased to 17 per cent of people who are reducing their credit card bills and overpaying on their loans.

At the same time, the number of people who are putting savings away on a regular basis to provide themselves with an emergency fund, has increased from 22 per cent back in October to 30 per cent now.

Gavin Kelly of the Resolution Foundation said “Families that are already hard pressed are preparing for yet another very tough year ahead, with a big rise in the numbers planning to cut back on spending as well as trying to save and reduce their loan debts.”

“Given this gloomy backdrop it’s a real worry that a new round of cuts to tax credits planned for April will further dampen the spending power of low to middle income families.”