A personal loan or secured loan from Halifax or 'the' Halifax may be the right loan for you. But you should always consider how the Halifax Loan stacks up against the competition before you make your final decision.

Halifax Personal Loans are available for almost any purpose, whether you're thinking of changing your car, making some home improvements or looking to simplify your finances into one manageable monthly payment. You can borrow any amount between £1,000 - £25,000 and you may repay your loan over any period between 12 months and seven years.

Like all personal loans, the Halifax loan offers you the benefit of a fixed interest rate for the duration of your loan term - so you'll at the outset exactly how much you have to pay and you can budget accordingly.

A secured loan from Halifax, marketed under the label Halifax HomeOwner Loan, unlike most unsecured personal loans, allows you to spread your repayments over a term that suits you, from 12 months to 25 years. With a secured loan from Halifax, you may borrow between £3,000 - £25,000. You may apply for a secured loan from Halifax even if your mortgage is not with Halifax.

Halifax is part of one of Britain's largest financial services groups, HBOS - Halifax Bank of Scotland. Halifax began life in the 19th Century as a building society and, as the country's biggest building society before it demutualised, became (and remains) the country's biggest mortgage lender. So, as an institution, it has plenty of practice at lending money to people like us.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the Halifax Personal Loan or the secured loan, the Halifax HomeOwner Loan will be right for your circumstances.

It is always a good idea to shop 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.