Northern Rock loans offers highly competitive interest rates for people looking for either personal loans (unsecured loans) or secured loans. Northern Rock is a relatively small bank. It was one of a clutch of building societies to demutualise, become a bank and issue shares on the stock market in the late 1990s.

Since becoming a bank, Northern Rock loans have established a reputation as being among the lowest interest rates available in the personal loans and secured loans markets.

If you are looking for a personal loan, with Northern Rock loans you may borrow any amount from £1,000 - £25,000 and spread your repayments over a period between 12 months and ten years. In secured lending, Northern Rock loans are available in amounts above £3,000 over periods of between five and 35 years.

You should remember that because Northern Rock loans offer highly competitive interest rates that the bank may not be prepared to lend in all circumstances. Lending institutions offering the very cheapest loans tend to cherry-pick as customers only those people with the very best credit records.

Northern Rock's roots go back to the 1850's in Newcastle, but the modern organisation was formed in 1965 when the Northern Counties Permanent and the Rock Building Societies merged to form Northern Rock Building Society. In October 1997 the Society converted to a plc.

As a bank, Northern Rock is the largest financial institution based in the North East of England but more than half of its business is now done outside the North East.

Are Northern Rock loans going to be 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.