Look at some of the facts and figures that describe the personal debt scenario in the UK.

The average consumer borrowing via credit cards, motor and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured personal loans had risen to £4,526 per UK adult at the end of January 2007. What is more interesting to know is that the Britain's personal debt is increasing by £1 million every 4 minutes. All this shows that Brits are very much reliant on personal loans, and it has become their way of life.

Personal loans are basically short-term loans designed to help you in times of financial paucity. Some of the providers of personal loans in UK include high street banks, building societies, private online lenders and other institutions engaged in helping people get easy money. The financial market is divided into prime and sub-prime lenders.

Prime lenders are those reputed high street banks, who provide different types of personal loans to the customers. Lloyds TSB was the leading personal loans provider in the year 2006. The parallel market that exists along with these reputed banks is that of private online lenders.

Private online lenders have made their presence felt through the Internet. Many customers now prefer to take online personal loans to meet their various financial requirements. Personal loans can be segregated into secured personal loans and unsecured personal loans. If you are a homeowner, you can get a personal loan at low rate of interest by providing your home as a security against the loan amount. Lenders feel safe in giving secured personal loans, as they get a security which they can rely on in the event of a default arising from the borrower’s side.

Unsecured personal loans do not require any security. These loans are safe for the borrowers. They can apply for unsecured personal loans from the comfort of their homes. The online method saves them a lot of time and efforts, and also avoids a direct interaction with loan officers from different companies.