In these tough recessionary times a lot of people are short on cash.  Even businesses that are doing ok are being denied their revolving credit lines which of course disrupts business.  Basically it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor the fact is that money is tight and many people need personal loans.

So what options do you have if you need a personal loan?  Well it really depends upon what you need the money for and how much the loan is for.  If you just need a few hundred or even one or two thousand dollars then there are several viable options available for you.  If on the other hand you need several thousand dollars it will be a lot more difficult and you will likely need to post collateral.

Here is a but a small list of available lenders that you can borrow from.  Family, friends, your 401K, your IRA, other retirement plans, your local credit union, your bank, other banks, credit cards, overdraft account, hard money lenders, payday loan type outfits, check into cash outlets, pawn shops, and the mafia.  Obviously the mafia is the last place anyone wants to borrow from but I did not want to skip any of the regularly known places to get a loan.

The list was done in order of the best option down to the worst option.  If you are lucky enough to have family that is able to help you to stay in good financial shape then be grateful as many people have no one to turn to.  The next option is to borrow from a retirement vehicle.  If you need to pay for an emergency medical procedure or for a home there are different laws in place that allow you to withdraw money early in order to pay those.  Of course in order to ensure that you qualify talk to a financial professional as not everyone is eligible and the penalties can be steep.

The next options are to go to your local bank or credit union to borrow money.  They can do loans of any amount and for any reason but like everything else some have different rules and guidelines then other ones so try out a few banks and credit unions to see if any are a match for you.

Credit cards and overdraft accounts are next on the list as you typically have to pay high interest but the loans terms are otherwise usually pretty good but are only a good option for short term loans.  The next option starts to go downhill.  Hard money lenders, payday loans, and check into cash lenders charge huge interest rates as well as several fees.  Do what you can to not use them but again they are an option.

Finally is the mob.  As you can guess it is illegal and amazingly expensive to use them.  And if you cant make your payments the consequences are not acceptable. So please when you borrow make sure that you are borrowing from a credible and legal lender.  You don’t need legal bill to add to your personal loan woes.

When people think of these loans, they are generally thinking of unsecured loans. This is because if they had collateral they would be trying to get a home loan or an auto loan. Since they don't they will look for this.

Most of these loans are unsecured. Many banks offer these loans and generally call them signature loans. If you want a specific example take a look at Wells Fargo signature loans. If you want to learn about this you can take a look at my article on signature loans.

You're looking for signature loans or bad credit signature loans.

Many people want personal loans and have bad credit. I definitely understand this - not everyone has good credit and we have all made mistakes. I would highly recommend taking a look at my article on personal loans for bad credit if you want to learn more about getting this type of loan with a poor credit history.

Honestly these loans don't do too well when you match them up against other types of loans. Even some other bad credit loans do better than these. For example, small business loans for poeple with bad credit are better than these because they can be backed be the government. Bad credit refinance loans are better because there's collateral attached - this lowers the interest rates. Motorcycle financing with bad credit is better, again because of the collateral.

These loans simply don't match up well with the competition.