The Abbey loan allows you to borrow between £1,000 - £20,000 over any period in six-monthly intervals between 12 months and eight years. If you are thinking of arranging a personal loan from Abbey (formerly Abbey National and now part of a larger group controlled by the Spanish Banco Santander) you will need to be over 18 years of age.

Apply for an Abbey Loan.
You will also need to have a regular income and be able to show the bank that you've managed your finances without any problems in the past. Providing that you can do this, you will able to benefit from the bank's competitive interest rates. It is worth bearing in mind that applications via the internet tend to be charged a lower rate of interest!

Although you may borrow amounts as low as £1,000, they will attract a higher rate of interest. Abbey operates its personal loan in three interest rate bands: £1,000 - £2,950, £3,000 - £4,950 and £5,000 - £20,000.

The lowest APRs quoted by Abbey are available on the highest loan band. The exact amount that you pay will be based on your credit rating and may be higher than Abbey's quoted typical APR.

You may not take repayment holidays with an Abbey personal loan but unlike some other loan providers Abbey does not make a penalty charge if your monthly direct debit payment is unpaid. You may make lump sum repayments subject to a minimum of £500.

Abbey National converted from a mutual building society to its current plc status in July 1989. It was the first mutually owned building society to convert to a public limited company in the UK. In 2004, it dropped? National' from the name and in December 2004, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco Santander Central Hispano.

Is an Abbey loan right for you and your circumstances? It is always worth shopping around before making your decision; to make sure you are choosing the right personal loan for you, you should use a comparison tool like Moneyextra's Personal Loan Search.