What is an unsecured Personal loan?


Personal Loan Application Form - Nigel Carse/E+/Getty ImagesNigel Carse/E+/Getty Images

Updated .

Unsecured loans allow you to borrow money for almost any purpose. You can use the funds to start a business, consolidate debt, or buy an expensive toy. Before you borrow, make sure you understand how these loans work and what the alternatives are.

Basics of Unsecured Personal Loans

When a loan is unsecured, there is no property or collateral to “secure” or guarantee the loan. For example, a mortgage loan is secured with property - if you don’t repay the loan, your lender has the right to sell your home and collect what you owe out of the sales proceeds.

With unsecured loans, nothing specific has been pledged as collateral. This makes them a little less risky for you (the borrower) because the consequences are not as immediate if you fail to repay.

Lenders, on the other hand, take more risk with unsecured personal loans. They don’t have any property to sell if things go badly, but of course they have other options available if they want to pursue repayment (they can take legal action against you and attempt to garnish your wages, for example).

Because lenders take more risk, they generally charge higher interest rates for unsecured loans than they do for secured loans.

Your credit is one of the most important factors that determine whether or not you’ll get an unsecured loan. If you have good credit, you’ll pay lower interest rates and you’ll have more options available to you. With bad credit, you can’t be as choosy, and you may need a co-signer to get approved for a loan.

Types of Unsecured Loans

There are several types of unsecured personal loans, and each one comes with tradeoffs. Try to pick the loan that best meets your needs while minimizing cost.

Interesting facts

  • Re Release note 3.01: "Create new domains":
    I can't see how to transfer some of my existing Types to a newly-created Domain.
    I presume that I don't have to re-create all the Types again, and all the Topics for the various Types? - that would be a huge amount of work.
  • I'm trying to think through how these various types are related to each other.
    My thinking is that there is an Article type (perhaps your Published Work type). An article would be a type related to Periodical/Magazine, and an Abstract would be part of an Article. The relationships would be something like:
    Magazine > Article > Abstract
    Of...

Additional information


What Is an Unsecured Claim in Bankruptcy?
What Is an Unsecured Claim in Bankruptcy?
Unsecured Business Loans in Australia, Loandesk Podcast
Unsecured Business Loans in Australia, Loandesk Podcast ...
Unsecured Personal Loan part 2
Unsecured Personal Loan part 2