How to get a quick loan

The first search is a soft search. It won't affect your credit score, and it leaves no mark other lenders can see. If nothing suits you, just close the page.

Our service is free to you. The lender pays us if you take a loan out.

Quick loans through us runs from £50 to £5,000, over 3 to 36 months.

A decision slows down when a lender needs a person to look at it. That usually happens when your income, address or bank details don't match what the lender finds. Accurate figures are the fastest route to an answer.

A fast decision is not the same as money today. Payout depends on the lender's payment run and on your bank. If the money has to land today, read how to get a same day loan.

They will still check your credit record. A lender that skipped the affordability assessment would be breaking the rules, not doing you a favour. What varies is how much weight a lender puts on the result.

Things that do not automatically end an application:

• a thin file, because you have never borrowed much

• missed payments you have since caught up

• a default that has aged

• a county court judgment, depending on its size and date

• self-employed or variable income

Things that usually do end one: an active bankruptcy, an insolvency arrangement in its early stages, or outgoings that leave nothing for a repayment.

Approval is never guaranteed, but the soft search is how you find out where you stand without adding a hard search to your file.

If your score is the worry, start with how to get a loan with bad credit.

• Car repairs. An MOT failure or a clutch, with work on the line if you cannot drive.

• Boilers and appliances. A cold house in January is not something you can put off to next month.

• Vet bills. Emergency consultations rarely arrive at a convenient time.

• A rent or utility shortfall. Paying late often costs more than borrowing to pay on time.

• Travel for a family emergency. Last-minute fares are expensive and they will not wait.

• An insurance excess. The claim pays out eventually. The excess is due now.

A quick loan won't fix a shortfall that comes back every month. If the same gap opens every month, another loan makes next month worse rather than better. Before you borrow, compare emergency loans with the alternatives on speed and cost, because some of them cost nothing.

Other signals worth taking seriously:

• You would be borrowing to repay a loan you already have.

• The shortfall is the same every month rather than a one-off.

• You are already behind on rent, council tax or an energy bill.

• You would need the longest term available just to make the payment fit.

• You are not sure what the total repayable would be.

If two or more of those are true, free debt advice will do more for you than credit will.

Priority debts come first: rent or mortgage, council tax, and energy. Losing your home or your supply is a worse outcome than any credit file.

• One form, the whole panel. Applying to five lenders separately means five applications and, usually, five hard searches.

• A soft search first. The lenders' first search won't affect your credit score. Repeated hard searches in a short window will.

• You see the spread. Rate, monthly payment and total repayable, side by side.

• No fee to you. We are paid by the lender if you take a loan out.

What a broker cannot do is lend to you, overturn a lender’s decision, or promise an outcome. Approval is never guaranteed, whichever route you take.

If you already know which lender you want, going direct is quicker. If you do not, one soft search across a panel beats five hard ones. Our guide to going direct or using a broker sets out the trade-offs properly.