Personal loan can anyone recommend a good lender

[Liveinthepresent]

Not sure whether to go to my bank (Santander) or elsewhere - basically I want to go to someone who will be prepared to go through all the information without just doing a credit check if I may not be successful - would be borrowing to pay off existing debts and know sometimes the banks aren't keen to help with this sort of loan these days.
Anyone got any positive experiences of lenders actually listening rather then just ticking boxes?

I've got a personal loan with Santander. They started asking how much I wanted to borrow, then asked how much I could afford to repay each month. Then they asked me to run through my outgoings to show that I could afford the repayment. Then they did the formal credit check and decision. I got the feeling they would have told me if I wasn't meeting their criteria prior to the credit check.

The bank I used to work at (not Santander) had an assessment screen with a rough guideline of what you are likely to be approved for based on your account conduct. However, obviously that can only go by things they are aware of, without a credit check nowhere (at least, nowhere reputable) will approve a loan.

Most lenders will look at your affordability for a loan before credit scoring eg if they are satisfied you have enough free income each month to repay the loan without risking getting into further debt. Is this what you mean?

Thanks both yes - I guess I can just explain that I don't want to go to credit check if they think I don't meet criteria?
I am maybe being paranoid but spoke to HSBC once about a similar thing and they didn't seem to grasp the affordability would change as I woud be paying off a credit card and therefore not making that payment any more...

Have a look at zopa

V good rates

Try with Santander if you bank with them, they will have an understanding of how you manage your finances. Anyone who you apply for a loan with will credit check you and if you have lots of searches showing up on your file it will reduce the chance of you being accepted by someone else.

My advice would be to check your credit score (and partner's if a joint application) with a company like Experian - you can sign up for a free trial and get instant results (just remember to cancel before the payment comes out). It also tells you how much available credit you have.
Good luck.

If you are paying off a credit card, the best thing you can possibly do is pick this months payment amount and make that a standing order.

Minimum payments will take 18 years to clear the debt.
Standing order at today's amount and that drops to under 4 years .....

Do not pay fees to take out new loans.

Just take control of the ones you have ....
Plug your numbers into the spreadsheet I posted onto Googledocs to see what I mean ....
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiZqlQ7-gn07dHRoTXA5Qnlld25UWkw1TEhZZk9IYVE&authkey=CMjc4JEB#gid=0

If you get the loan cancel the credit card!

cancel ALL credit cards. Cut them up.
Do not get another one until you've paid off all the debts and not been overdrawn for 6 months.

If nothing else its a WONDERFUL feeling when you know that you've given the banks no profits for months and months.