If you’re searching for a good deal on a secured loan, it pays to know where to look. Finding the best rates can make a noticeable difference to your monthly outgoings - but with so many deals on offer, it can be difficult to keep track.

Explaining secured loans

If a loan is ’secured’, it means that your home is a form of ’safeguard’ against the deal. Because lenders consider this type of loan a lower risk than unsecured loans, you will often have access to lower interest rates and a longer repayment period. Because the loan is secured against your home, failing to make repayments could ultimately result in your home being repossessed (although this is generally a last resort). But as long as you're sure that you can keep up with your current repayments, a secured loan could be a great way of raising some additional funds.

How to find the best secured loan deals

There are a number of things you can do to get yourself one step ahead in the loans market. Do your research Taking the first deal you come across is rarely a good idea. It's easy to get a rough idea of the interest rates that each lender is offering - either online or on the high street. Take special care to find out whether there are any catches - some of the interest rates advertised may not apply to the amount you are borrowing, for example. Also be aware that the rate you are offered will largely depend on your credit history, so if your credit history is not perfect, you may end up paying a little more than advertised. Take your time Don’t necessarily expect to take out your new loan the very same week you start looking. It’s often a good idea to set aside some to search the market to ensure that you are aware of what deals various lenders are offering. Get free loans advice Speaking to an expert loans adviser can often make a real difference. Since they will have information on a range of lenders at any given time, your loans adviser can easily compare the best deals for your circumstances. A loans adviser can also generally advise you on the best type of loan for your needs. If an unsecured loan is more appropriate for your situation, for example, a loans adviser can explain everything in detail. For free, impartial, no-obligation advice on unsecured loans, call Think Loans on 0800 195 2910

Are remortgages and secured loans still an option in today’s troubled times? What actually happens to remortgage / secured loans markets when a credit crunch and a housing market crisis come hard on the heels of a decade of rapid house prices increases?

The first thing to note is this: it’ll take a long ‘crash’ to wipe out all the gains of the last decade (and cause serious problems for anyone thinking about a loan or remortgage). When house prices peaked in October 2007, according to Nationwide’s House Price Index, the average house had taken just ten years to more than treble in value, rocketing from £60,754 (Q3 1997) to £186,044.

It is true that prices dropped around 9% (to £169,316) by July 2008, but this took them back only to the kind of price levels we’d seen in September 2006. In other words, it took nine months to wipe out the gains of the 13 pre-peak months.

It’s always dangerous to draw parallels with previous housing market downturns, but looking back to 1989 (the last time house prices peaked), prices went down about 20% over three and a half years before starting to climb again. Prices are dropping faster this time, but the recent decade of rapid rises shows just how much demand there is for housing – or rather how much demand there will be as soon as the mortgage market picks up again…

How much equity is there out there?

Whatever lies ahead, the average person who’s owned their house for the last decade could easily have over £100,000 of equity – enough collateral to remortgage or secure a substantial loan. Aside from the increases in the property value, there’s also the ten years of mortgage payments to take into consideration.

Of course, anyone who’s already secured a loan against their property in the past would have less equity to draw on now – unless they’d used that secured loan to finance home improvements, potentially increasing the value of their house (and therefore their equity).

Is it available?

Just because the equity is there, it doesn’t necessarily mean it can be accessed. You will find now that lenders have become very cautious about lending money, even if the when the borrower is offering to secure it against property. After all, a house is less valuable as security at a time like this, when property is steadily decreasing in value and hard to sell – every lender knows that other lenders are equally hesitant about granting mortgages, which is significantly reducing demand in the housing market.

So mortgages and secured loans have become both harder to obtain and more expensive. Lenders are also generally less willing to lend as much: many are limiting remortgages to 80% of the property’s value, as they don’t know what will happen to prices and can’t rely on natural price appreciation to guarantee recovery of the funds.

However, even though the criteria are stricter, homeowners with enough equity (and the means to make the repayments) can still withdraw it – so for them, a secured loan or remortgage is still an option.