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How to get a loan with bad credit
A poor credit score is not an automatic no - we can consider all credit scores if the loan is affordable.
What happens after I click?
- You complete one short, secure form.
- A soft search checks your eligibility. Your credit score isn't affected.
- No one will call you.
- If accepted, you see your offer and choose whether to accept.
- We do not charge you a fee for using PaydayUK.
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Representative example: Amount of credit: £500 for 6 months at £100.22 per month (final payment £100.21). Total amount repayable of £601.31 Interest: £101.31 Interest rate: 66.49% pa (fixed). Representative 91% APR. Rates between 9.3% APR and maximum 1292.1% APR - your no-obligation quote and APR will be based on your personal circumstances. Credit broker, not a lender. Payday UK (Payday Loans Ltd) is an appointed representative of Flux Funding Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN 806333).
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BAD CREDIT EXPLAINED
What counts as bad credit on my credit file?
Bad credit means a credit file that makes a lender hesitate, usually because of missed payments, a default, a CCJ, an IVA or a thin file. There is no official bad-credit list, and no score that makes you an automatic no.
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Payday UK is a credit broker, not a lender. We search a panel of lenders, and several of them consider people with poor credit.
Bad credit is usually caused by one or more of these:
Missed payments on a card, a loan or a phone contract.
A default, where an account was closed with money still owed.
A CCJ or an IVA, both of which stay on your file for six years.
A thin file, because you have never borrowed and there is nothing to judge you on.
Hard searches - several in a short space, which read as someone under pressure.
The three credit reference agencies score you differently, so the number you saw on an app is not the number a lender sees. What they have in common is the history underneath it.
A poor score is one input, not a verdict. Lenders on our panel weigh your income and your outgoings today alongside it, and for several of them what is happening now matters more than what happened three years ago.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
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BEING TURNED DOWN
Will a poor credit score rule me out?
Approval is never guaranteed, but a poor credit score does not rule you out on its own. Lenders on our panel look at your income and outgoings as well as your credit history.
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High street banks routinely decline applications from a damaged file, often in seconds. Specialist lenders do not work that way. They price for the risk instead, which means a higher rate than someone with a clean file would pay for the same money.
So the useful question is rarely "will anyone lend?". It is "can I afford what they would offer?".
That is why the search starts with a soft credit check. It won't affect your credit score, and it leaves no mark other lenders can see. You find out where you stand before a hard search is recorded for other lenders to see.
We are a credit broker, not a lender. We search our panel and show you which lenders may consider you.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
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Enter an amount in pounds, from £50 to £5,000.
Will I be approved?
We know you need your money as soon as possible. Check where you stand in 3 minutes with a soft search that won't affect your credit score.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
How do I get a loan with bad credit through Payday UK?
To get a loan with bad credit, apply once online and we pass your details to our panel. Lenders run a soft credit check, and you choose from any offers. That lender runs a full credit check before deciding.
You are in the right place if you have been declined before, or if you expect to be. You can apply for loans for bad credit online in about two minutes. Here is the whole sequence.
Tell us the amount, the term, your income and your regular outgoings. It takes about two minutes.
We send your details to the lenders on the panel that consider poor credit histories. They run a soft credit check, which won't affect your credit score.
You see which lenders may consider you, with the rate, the monthly payment and the total repayable on each result.
You choose, or you do not. There is no obligation, and no fee to you at any point.
The lender you pick runs a full credit check, makes the final decision and pays the money out.
That last step is the one to hold on to. We do not lend, set the rate or make the decision. The credit agreement is between you and the lender. What we save you is filling in six forms and collecting six hard searches.
If a lender says yes, the money is often sent the same working day. If nobody does, you will be told, and the search leaves no mark other lenders can see.
Am I borrowing from Payday UK or from a lender?
You borrow from a lender on our panel, never from Payday UK. We are a credit broker, not a lender. Nothing on this page is an offer of credit from us.
That is worth being blunt about, because a lot of searches here are for bad credit loans from direct lenders. Going direct does have an advantage: one relationship and one set of terms. It also has a cost. An application made direct often leaves a hard search on your file, and several hard searches in a few weeks make the next lender more cautious.
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A direct lender lends its own money and sets its own criteria.
A broker sends one application to a panel of lenders, who run a soft check. It then hands you to the lender you pick.
Either way the credit agreement, the rate and the decision belong to the lender.
A broker turns six applications into one search. The trade-off is that we can only show you what our own panel offers, which is why comparing elsewhere too is a reasonable thing to do.
Choosing between a payday loan direct lender or a broker comes down to how many searches you want on your file.
Can I get a loan with no credit check if I have bad credit?
You cannot get a loan with no credit check from a regulated UK lender, whatever your credit history, because it has to check you can afford the loan before agreeing to it. A credit check is the main way that gets done.
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A firm offering a consumer loan with no check at all is either not authorised, or not telling you what it is really doing. Treat the promise as a warning rather than a bargain.
What most people searching for this actually want is to know where they stand before they apply. That is what a soft search first does.
A soft search is a quotation check. You see it on your own report; other lenders do not.
A hard search is recorded for other lenders to see, and happens when you go ahead with an offer.
So you can see any offers from lenders on our panel before you commit to anything. That is not a loophole, it is how a broker search is meant to work.
Our guide to no credit check loans explains the tactics used and what to look for instead.
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AFFORDABILITY FIRST
What decides my eligibility for a bad credit loan?
Your eligibility for a bad credit loan comes down mainly to affordability: your income, your outgoings and what is left each month.
A specialist lender still reads your credit file, but weighs it against what is happening in your bank account now.
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Income it can evidence: wages, self-employed earnings, a pension, and in many cases benefits.
Outgoings: rent or mortgage, bills, food, travel and any other credit you are paying.
What is left. The gap between those two is what a repayment has to fit inside.
Recent conduct. A default from four years ago reads very differently to a missed payment last month.
Stability, in the sense of the same job and the same address for a while.
The test is affordability, not perfection. A lender has to be satisfied you can make every payment, whatever your file shows.
This is the part you can influence before you apply. Work out your monthly surplus, then ask for an amount that fits inside it. Our eligibility criteria page lists the basics every lender on the panel starts from.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
What does my credit file mean for my application?
Most of what follows is not an automatic decline through our panel, but an IVA or debt plan in progress and an undischarged bankruptcy usually are. What the rest change is who will consider you, and what the rate looks like.
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| What is on your file | Does it rule you out? | What a lender weighs instead |
|---|---|---|
| A few late payments | No | Whether the last few months look settled |
| A default under six years old | No, but fewer lenders will look | Your income, your outgoings, and how old the default is |
| A CCJ still showing | No, and some panel lenders will still consider you | Whether it is satisfied, and affordability today |
| An IVA or debt plan in progress | Usually yes while it runs | Speak to your plan provider before you borrow at all |
| Bankruptcy not yet discharged | Yes | Nothing to weigh - wait for discharge |
| No credit history at all | No | Income, address history and how you run your account |
| Several hard searches this month | No, but it makes lenders cautious | Space applications out and start with a soft search |
Guidance only, not a decision. Every lender on the panel sets its own criteria and assesses each application on its own facts.
How much can I borrow with bad credit?
With bad credit you can apply for £50 to £5,000, over 3 to 36 months. A poor credit score does not change those limits, but it does affect how much a lender will offer you.
In practice a first loan on a damaged file sits at the smaller end. Lenders lend a little, watch how it is repaid, and consider more later. Ask for the top of the range with a recent default and you should expect a smaller offer rather than none at all.
Ask for what you need, not for the maximum. A smaller amount is easier to approve and cheaper to repay.
The smallest amounts. A meter top-up or a bill that cannot wait. See £50 loans and £100 loans.
The most common requests. See £300 loans and £500 loans.
Four figures. A repair or a replacement, spread over a year or more. See £1,000 loans and £2,000 loans.
The top of the panel. The hardest band to reach with a poor file. See £3,000 loans and £5,000 loans.
If you only need a small sum, small loans are the place to start.
How much will a loan with bad credit cost me?
A loan with bad credit will cost you more than the same loan would cost someone with a clean file. That is the bad news, and it belongs first.
Rates across the panel run from 9.3% APR to 1,292.1% APR, and our representative rate is 91% APR. Where you land inside that range depends on the lender, the term and your circumstances. There is no separate published bad-credit price.
APR annualises the cost, so a short loan turns a small amount of money into a very large percentage. On a three-month loan the APR is close to useless as a comparison. Compare the total amount repayable in pounds instead. Our guide to APR explained works through why that is.
You will see the monthly payment, the total and the APR before you agree to anything. No lender on our panel charges you to apply, and we never charge you at all.
What can I expect from a loan with bad credit?
Expect a smaller amount and a rate higher up the panel's range, rather than an automatic decline. These are panel-wide limits rather than an offer or a quote.
| What you are looking at | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| Amount | £50 to £5,000 |
| Repayment term | 3 to 36 months |
| Representative APR | 91% APR |
| APR range across the panel | 9.3% to 1,292.1% |
| Where a poor credit file usually lands you | A smaller amount and a rate higher up that range, rather than an automatic decline |
| Check to get a quote | Soft search - won't affect your credit score |
| Check to take the loan | Full credit check by the lender you choose |
| Fee to use Payday UK | None - we are paid a commission by the lender if a loan completes. |
| Who lends the money | An FCA-authorised lender from our panel, never us |
Which repayment term should I pick?
You can choose between 3 and 36 months, inside whatever the lender offers. Each choice costs you something.
A shorter term means a higher monthly payment and less interest overall. A longer term means a lower monthly payment and more interest overall. The right term is the shortest one you can comfortably afford.
With a poor credit file there is a second thing to weigh. A repayment set too tight is the commonest reason a loan goes wrong, and a missed payment does more harm to your file than the loan did good. Leave yourself room.
3 month loans - the shortest term on the panel. Cheapest in total, hardest on the monthly budget.
6 month loans - the middle ground between the two.
12 month loans - a smaller monthly payment spread across a year.
Instalment loans - how fixed monthly repayments work in general.
Short term loans - the shape of this kind of borrowing, start to finish.
You can repay early at any time and pay less interest. No early repayment charge applies to loans arranged through us. Ask the lender for a settlement figure first. It can include up to 28 days' extra interest. Agreements over a year can add a little more.
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HOW FAST
Can I get the money the same day with bad credit?
You can usually get a bad credit loan paid the same day if a lender approves you on a working day. Nobody can promise it, and that includes us.
The decision is the fast part. You will normally see which lenders can help within minutes of finishing the form. Accept an offer and lenders on our panel aim to send the money the same working day, often within the hour.
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After that it is your bank rather than the lender. Most UK banks are on Faster Payments and the money lands quickly. Some hold incoming transfers longer, and weekends and bank holidays slow everything down. A thin or damaged credit file can also add a manual review step, which is the commonest reason a payout slips to the next working day.
Timing. Apply in the morning on a working day, because later applications can slip to the next one.
Preparation. Have your sort code, account number, employer and monthly income to hand.
Accuracy. Figures that do not match your bank statements cause manual checks, and manual checks cost hours.
If speed is the whole point, read about how to get a same day loan and how to get a quick loan. If this is an emergency rather than a purchase, read our guide to emergency loans first.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
Why can't anyone guarantee me a loan?
Nobody can guarantee you a loan, because a lender has to check you can afford it before it lends. Searches for guaranteed approval and no-refusal loans are everywhere. There is no such product in regulated UK lending, and a firm advertising one is telling you something about itself.
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No broker can guarantee you a loan, and neither can a lender before it has seen your figures. What a good search can do is stop you wasting hard searches on lenders who were never going to say yes.
A lender has to assess loan affordability before it lends. That assessment can only go one way once it has your figures, so no outcome can honestly be promised in advance. What you can improve is your odds.
Ask for less than the maximum, because affordability is the test you have to pass.
Apply once, through a soft search. Several hard searches in a month count against you.
Get your details right. Address and income mismatches cause declines that had nothing to do with your credit file.
Check the free options first. A grant or a hardship arrangement beats any loan on offer here.
If you have been turned down repeatedly, a guarantor can change the answer, because guarantor loans are backed by someone who agrees to cover the repayments if you cannot. If you would rather borrow on your own, no guarantor loans are assessed on your income alone.
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REBUILDING
Can repaying a loan improve my credit score?
Yes, repaying a loan on time can improve your credit score, because it adds months of good conduct to a file that has been short of it. That is one of the few upsides here.
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It can also make things worse. A missed payment on a new loan is recorded like any other, and a default would sit on your file for six years. The loan repairs nothing by itself. The repayments do.
Set the direct debit for a date just after payday, not just before it.
Never repay one loan with another. That is the start of a pattern, not the end of a problem.
Tell the lender early if a payment is going to be difficult. They have to treat you fairly, and most will rearrange.
Check your own file with the credit reference agencies. Errors are common and free to dispute.
Free and impartial help with all of this is at MoneyHelper. For the longer version, how to borrow money safely walks through it.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
Who is eligible for a bad credit loan?
You are eligible for a bad credit loan if you are 18 or over, live in the UK, have a UK bank account and have an income a lender can verify.
Every lender on the panel sets its own loan eligibility criteria, but these are the requirements they all start from:
Age: 18 or over.
Residency: a UK resident, with a UK address and some address history behind you.
Banking: a UK current account in your own name, with a debit card.
Income a lender can verify - employment, self-employment, a pension, and in many cases benefits.
Contact details, so the lender can reach you by phone and by email.
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Meeting all five is the start, not the decision. Affordability is then assessed on top, and it has to be. A poor credit file is not on that list - it changes which lenders on the panel will consider you and what they charge, not whether you meet the basics.
Some circumstances need their own reading. If your income is benefits, loans for people on benefits is the honest version. If you are out of work, start with loans when you are unemployed, which puts government support ahead of borrowing. If you are under 21 with a thin file, loans for young people covers that.
Full detail is on our eligibility criteria page.
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WHO WE ARE
Is Payday UK safe for me to use?
Payday UK is a credit broker that charges you no fees. You can check our FCA status yourself rather than take it on trust.
Our company number is 12430457.
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Look us up on the FCA Register. A firm that is not on it should not be arranging credit for you.
We are not the lender. We never hold your money and we never make the decision.
We charge you nothing. A lender pays us a commission if a loan completes.
Your application goes to the lenders and brokers on our panel so they can quote. Anything beyond that, like marketing, only happens if you agree to it. We are registered with the Information Commissioner under ZA654345, and our privacy policy sets out every use.
There is a complaints route to us, then to our principal, then to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
For anything else, contact us.
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
What alternatives should I try before I borrow?
Before you borrow, try your employer, the people you owe, grants, interest-free credit, a credit union or an arranged overdraft.
A loan is not the cheapest answer to every shortfall, and on a poor credit file it is one of the dearer ones. These are worth ten minutes first.
Your employer. Many will bring wages forward on request, and it costs nothing to ask.
Whoever you owe. Energy suppliers, councils and phone providers all have hardship teams, and asking costs you nothing.
Grants. A Household Support Fund payment or a charitable grant is money you do not repay at all.
Interest-free credit. A DWP Budgeting Loan, or a Budgeting Advance if you are on Universal Credit, charges no interest - but it is repaid from your future payments, so budget for it.
A credit union. Their rates are capped by law and they lend to plenty of people the banks turn away.
An arranged overdraft. Sometimes cheaper for a few days. Since 2020 an unarranged overdraft carries the same interest rate as an arranged one, but it can add a refused-payment fee and it is a signal other lenders notice.
Read more
If borrowing still makes sense after that, the rest of this page is here.
Free, independent debt help
These services give free, confidential help with bills, benefits and debt. None of them will sell you anything, and talking to them will not affect your credit file.
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MoneyHelper
Free, impartial money and debt guidance, backed by government, including a debt advice locator.
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StepChange
Free, confidential debt advice and managed debt plans, online or over the phone.
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National Debtline
Free, independent advice on dealing with debts, with fact sheets and sample letters.
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Citizens Advice
Free help with debt, benefits and housing, in person, by phone or online.
0800 144 8848 (England; Wales 0800 702 2020)
If you're unsure whether borrowing is right for you, our eligibility criteria page explains who lenders can consider.
A soft search shows you where you stand, and it won't affect your credit score.
Where to go next
If this page is not quite the one you need, these pages cover the other common reasons people with a poor credit file borrow. A poor credit file is a reason to look hard at the terms, not a reason to assume you have no options.
Short of money until payday? Cash advance loans cover a small amount until your wages arrive.
Unsecured loans explain what borrowing with nothing to secure it against means in practice.
Payday loans compared puts the main short-term products side by side.
Doorstep loans, where an agent collects repayments at your home, have their own costs and risks to check.
If you would rather read than apply, the Money Hub guides have no form to fill in.
Whichever you pick, the same two rules hold. Compare the total you will repay rather than the monthly payment, and never borrow to repay borrowing.
How it works
We know you need your money as soon as possible. That's why we have designed our website to be fast and simple.
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Apply online
Fill out our short, secure form and search a panel of FCA-regulated lenders to see the offers available to you.
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Check your offer
Once you have your offer from the lender, you can review the offer and get your cash.
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Get your money
Once accepted, your money can often be paid into your account the same day.
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Bad credit loan amounts and terms
Check eligibility Soft search. Won’t affect your score
Representative 91% APR.
Loan guides
These guides will help you find out more about the different types of loan and lenders available.
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Find out why no credit check loans don’t exist in the UK and how lenders assess affordability. See the legitimate options if you have bad credit or no credit history.
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A guide to guarantor loans, how they work and who can be one.
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Can a young person get a loan with no credit history? What lenders check, how to build credit from nothing, and the cheaper options to try first.
More questions? Your questions answered
How do bad credit loans work?
A bad credit loan works like any other short-term loan, but a lender sees a poor credit score as a higher risk. That can mean a higher rate, a smaller amount or a request for a guarantor.
We don't believe a past mistake should shut you out, so our panel includes several lenders that specialise in bad credit loans. You see the offers they can make you, sorted by cost, without applying to each one in turn.
Can I get a loan with no credit check?
You cannot get a loan with no credit check from an authorised UK lender, even with bad credit. The rules require a lender to assess whether you can afford the loan, and a credit check is how that is done. What we can do is search our panel, and lenders use a soft check first, which won't affect your credit score.
Can I get guaranteed approval with bad credit?
You cannot get guaranteed approval with bad credit, or with any other credit history, but a poor credit score does not rule you out on its own. Any firm promising acceptance before a lender has seen your income and outgoings is making a claim it cannot support. A soft search shows you where you stand first.
Is there a minimum credit score to apply?
There is no minimum credit score to apply for a bad credit loan, because the three credit reference agencies score you differently and each lender reads a file its own way. Lenders on our panel weigh your current income and outgoings alongside your history, so affordability usually matters more than the number itself.
Can I borrow up to £5,000 with bad credit?
The panel covers £50 to £5,000, and a poor credit score does not change those bounds. It does change how far up them a lender will go. A first loan on a damaged file is usually towards the smaller end, so expect a lower offer rather than none at all.
Will a bad credit loan improve my credit score?
A bad credit loan can improve your credit score if every payment is made on time, because a repaid loan adds recent good conduct to your file. A missed payment does the opposite, and a default would stay on your file for six years. The loan itself repairs nothing, and the repayments are what count.
I have been refused everywhere. Can I still get a bad credit loan?
You may still be able to get a bad credit loan after being refused elsewhere, and it costs nothing to find out because the search is a soft one. Our panel includes lenders who specialise in applications that high street banks decline. If nobody on the panel can help, you will be told.
Will a low credit score make it more expensive to borrow?
A low credit score will usually make it more expensive to borrow, because lenders see you as a higher risk and charge a higher rate of interest to reflect it. Some people think a high APR is just because of bad credit, but high APR on payday loans can also reflect the shorter term.
High street lenders are more likely to refuse your application, but our panel includes several lenders that specialise in bad credit loans.
