What sort of interest rate should I be looking for?

What sort of interest rate should I be looking for?

Robert Sinclair (Director, AFB) gives expert video advice on: What is interest?; How does interest affect my loan?; Is interest something I can shop around for? and more...

In any competitive market place, the rate reflected is often by the type of asset that sits behind the loan, and what you're using the money for, so you'll normally find that mortgages are the lowest interest rates available in the market place. After that would come the secured loans, which tend to be 2 or 3 percentage points higher than mortgages. After that are unsecured loans, personal loans, which again, would be 2 or 3 percentage points more than a unsecured loan. After that, you get to overdrafts, and companies will charge you a range of rates in that, but they generally will be slightly more expensive than an unsecured loan. The most expensive type of borrowing is usually on a credit card, although there are some companies who'll give credit cards at very competitive rates, and you'll see certainly, some credits cards offering zero percent interest rates, but you have to look at those very carefully, and there is often may be a balance transfer fee to that.