If you are thinking of taking out a personal loan from Marbles, you will need to be over 21 years of age and in receipt of a regular income of at least £10,000 a year before tax.

With a Marbles Loan you may borrow between £1,000 - £25,000 over any period between 12 months and seven years. However, Marbles will not lend money to you for business purposes or for a timeshare although you may use a Marbles Loan for debt consolidation.

Marbles will not consider lending to people with County Court Judgements and requires that all your credit commitments must be up to date. Marbles' personal loans are only available to UK residents (excluding residents of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands).

Marbles is the online personal finance arm of HFC Bank, which is, itself, part of the HSBC Group. Marbles says it is a responsible lender and recommends that the maximum personal loan you apply for should be no more than half your gross annual salary.

All Marbles personal loans and interest rates are subject to status. The actual interest rates at which Marbles will lend money to you will reflect your personal circumstances, credit score and desired loan amount. Marbles operates three interest rate bands with the most expensive rates on small, short term loans. As a general rule you can expect to pay a higher interest rate on a personal loan if you are borrowing a relatively small amount of money over less than five years.

There are no penalties for paying off a lump sum within the term of your loan and you may make lump sum repayments as often as you like. Although Marbles does not offer repayment holidays on its personal loan it does offer the option of deferring your first repayment for up to four months but do remember you will be racking up interest charges.