At least seven loan providers have raised the interest rates on their products, which are aimed at new customers, in the past four weeks.

The average interest rates of the unsecured loans are now between 8.74% and 9.07% since this time last year. The loan providers which raised their prices include, Bradford and Bingley, Cumberland Building Society, Furness Building Society, Smile, the Co-Operative Bank, Cheshire Bank and Stroud and Swindon.

Although other loan providers have introduced an ‘existing customers only’ policy, which providers lower interest rates when they have taken out a loan product. There are currently 13 deals available for existing customers at an average APR of 8.5% compared to an average of 9.2% coming from lenders such as Barclays, Nationwide, Sainsbury's, Tesco and even HBOS.

Louise Bond, the personal finance expert at the price comparison website said: "At the moment, loyalty really is king and many consumers could find a preferential loan rate with their existing provider. It's definitely worth finding out what they can offer you before you search the rest of the market.

She added: "Hiking loan rates in the current climate is just making an already difficult situation practically impossible for consumers. Much as we understand that the banks are struggling, these are big hikes for people to swallow. With all eyes on mortgages and savings, it seems loan providers are slipping under the radar slightly."