Secured loans - where to start?

This is my first post, so let me introduce myself. I work at Ukpower.co.uk (gas and electricity price comparison site) and we have just launched a new site called switchwise.com which has been developed to help people make savings on the boring things in life such as household bills and personal finance products.

I needed a loan a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would see just how good our site was first hand!

Taking out a loan should be easy! Our television programmes are packed with adverts for loan companies, but in my opinion, that just makes the job all that much harder! Who do you believe? With so many deals out there, how do you know you are getting the best loan for your needs?

I decided to ignore all of the loan adverts I had seen on TV. At the end of the day, they are just selling their own deals and aren't going to tell you if they think you can get a better deal elsewhere.

So I headed off to a few of the loan comparison sites that are out there. There are plenty around and a quick search soon brings up loads of them.

I put in the loan amount that I wanted and answered a few questions, being then given hundreds of secured loan deals. While it made the job easier, I was still not sure which one to go for.

Switchwise.com works in a slightly different way. You enter your loan requirements in a similar way, but then somebody contacts you about your loan. Okay, this doesn't suit everybody, but for me, it meant that I could chat through th loan details with a real person and feel confortable with the loan deal that I went for.

Give it a go, let me know how you get on!