It appears the credit crunch in the UK is going to hit harder times with the news that personal loan interest rates have rising further.

In January this year the rate was around 10.62% and reports for March show 11.4%.

Sean Gardner who works for MoneyExpert.com said”Over 180,000 people consolidate their debts every month, and the vast majority turn to an unsecured personal loan to help them control their finances”.

Consolidating means someone with two or more debts maybe from credit cards wishing to merge all there debt together. Many people see taking out a loan as a good solution as they can spread the debt over a few years and the rates are usually lower than those being charged for credit cards.

The increase in loan rates will mean those looking for a great deal may find this harder than originally anticipated.

Also lenders are clamping down on the criteria of customers they will accept, many of us are being rejected for loans that 6 months ago we would have been accepted for.