Swiss Personal Loan Comparison 2024

You can easily find the loan that best matches you needs using the unbiased personal loan comparison on moneyland.ch. The comparison shows you which loans you are eligible to apply for based on the information you enter. You can begin the application process directly on moneyland.ch, after which you receive a link to the lenders secure website where you can complete the application process.

The unbiased loan comparison on moneyland.ch is the most comprehensive in Switzerland and accounts for all relevant Swiss personal loan offers. It also includes online-only loan offers.

Although the exact interest rate you get depends on your creditworthiness, the moneyland.ch comparison automatically shows the minimum and maximum cost of each loan. It also calculates the costs and monthly loan payments of listed loan offers.

The personal loan comparison results only include loans which you are eligible to apply for based on the information you enter. Relevant criteria include: the loan size; the loan term; your age; your country of residence; your canton of residence; your residence status; your employment status; and your income.

The exact interest rate which you get depends on how the lender assesses your creditworthiness. For this reason, you have to provide additional information (about your living expenses, for example) after you click on the apply button corresponding to the loan of your choice. When you apply for a loan, the lender may also check your credit history at various credit bureaus (ZEK, CRIF, Intrum Justitia). You can find additional information in the guide to Swiss personal loan eligibility.

Yes. Lenders are not obligated to lend you money, and can reject loan applications. The moneyland.ch personal loan comparison accounts for the most broadly relevant criteria applicable to loan applications, but it does not cover all possible criteria which may be required by all lenders. Even if a loan offer appears in comparison results based on the data you enter, the lender may still reject your loan application. This could be the case when, for example, you have negative entries in your credit history at credit bureaus (ZEK, CRIF, Intrum Justitia), which moneyland.ch does not have access to.

You can generally use personal loans for anything you choose to. You are not normally required to use the money for a specific purpose.

Swiss personal loans are frequently used for the following purposes: Buying a car; buying or renovating a property; buying furniture; paying debts or bills; refinancing other loans; buying electronics and other consumer goods.

In Switzerland, personal loans are often marketed as car loans to target individuals who would use loans to buy cars. However, unlike car loans in some other countries, the car you buy with the loan generally does not act as collateral to secure the loan. If you cannot afford to buy a car in cash, using a personal loan is an option worth considering. In many cases, using a personal loan to finance a car is a better financial move than leasing a car. The loan vs. leasing calculator on moneyland.ch makes it easy to find out which option is more affordable.

This is not normally possible. Established Swiss lenders only provide loans to residents of Switzerland. Without a Swiss address, you generally will not be accepted for a loan.

There are exceptions to this rule: Some lenders also accept residents of Liechtenstein. Exceptions may also be made for cross-border workers residing in Austria, France, Germany and Italy.

No. While your place of residence and the residence permit you hold are important criteria, your citizenship is generally not important.

In addition to Swiss passport holders, lenders also accept applicants who hold C permits (permanent residence). Many lenders also accept B permit holders (temporary residents), but generally require you to have held the permit for six months or one year ahead of applying for the loan.

If you hold a G permit (cross-border worker), an L permit (short-term residence) or a diplomatic permit, you may be accepted by some lenders under certain circumstances. Only loans which you are eligible to apply for based on your residence permit are included in the results of the moneyland.ch personal loan comparison.

An effective annual interest rate indicates the total costs of a personal loan. The effective annual interest rate includes all possible costs, divided by the years in the loan term. Currently, the maximum legal effective interest rate for personal loans is 12 percent per annum. The loan comparison shows you the actual loan cost or the size of loan payments based on an effective annual interest rate. You can find more information in the effective annual interest glossary entry.

The cost of personal loans varies between loan offers and your creditworthiness. Swiss personal loans can cost less than 4 percent effective annual interest or as much as 12 percent. Loans from some lenders are more than twice as expensive as loans from other lenders. Many lenders publish an interest rate range indicating the lowest and highest interest rates they charge. The interest rate which you get based on your creditworthiness will fall within this range.

Important: The actual cost of a loan depends on the loan term and the loan size. Even if two loans have the same effective annual interest rates, they can have different total costs if they have different loan terms or loan sizes. The longer the loan term and the bigger the loan, the higher the total cost.

You can learn more about loan costs here.

Currently there are no free personal loans. In the past, there have been loan offers with negative interest rates. This meant that you as the borrower would get paid for getting a loan. The problem was that these negative-interest loans were offered as part of short-term marketing promotions. There were numerous eligibility criteria attached to these loans, and only very few borrowers were eligible for them.

The cheapest Swiss lenders offer loans with effective interest rates below 4% per annum. But in order to be eligible for the lowest rates, you must meet a long list of criteria which very few borrowers are able to meet. For example, you may only be eligible for the lowest available rates if you own your own home. As a result, very few borrowers get loans with the lowest available rates. For that reason, it is more important to consider which loan is the cheapest for your specific situation than which lender offers the lowest possible interest rate.

Loans cost money. There are few situations in which paying for a loan works out financially advantageous compared to using savings. You should only get a loan if you are absolutely sure that you can repay it without difficulty, making allowance for unexpected financial losses and expenses.

1. If you have debt, consider consulting your cantonal debt counseling office. Loans are not free, and taking out new loans when you already have debt can worsen your financial difficulties.
2. Many lenders advertise both their lowest and highest possible interest rates. Understand that you will only get the lowest interest rates if you have exceptional creditworthiness.
3. Choose the shortest realistically possible loan term and never borrow more money than you absolutely have to. The longer the loan term and the bigger the loan, the more you will pay for it.

You can find useful tips in the guide to getting personal loans in Switzerland.

If you have debt and are having difficulty paying it off, getting an additional loan can worsen your already-strained financial situation. Consider seeking advice from a competent debt counselling service. Important: There are many questionable debt counselling services. We recommend that you contact the official cantonal debt counseling services.

We do not recommend using foreign lenders which offer loans to residents of Switzerland. There are many fraudulent lenders based outside of Switzerland which fish for victims in Switzerland. Questionable lenders often create Swiss websites and try to pass themselves off as Swiss companies. Always look at the fine print to determine where the company is domiciled. If they have foreign address (UK addresses, for example), avoid them completely. Many fraudulent companies demand an upfront payment for “administrative costs” with the promise that they will transfer the loan once your payment has been received. Fraudulent lenders keep your payment but never provide the promised loan.

There are many questionable lenders which advertise heavily on the Internet or via email campaigns. The simplest way to avoid fraudulent lenders is to stick with lenders which are listed in the moneyland.ch personal loan comparison.

Questionable lenders often ask you to send them money before providing you with a loan. These lenders justify this charge by labelling it a debt restructuring or debt repair fee. We recommend you avoid any lender which requests payments in advance of providing a loan.

Using a loan broker can save you time because the broker matches you with a suitable loan and assists with the application process. However, there are unscrupulous loan brokers which aim to earn the highest possible commissions, and the most expensive loans generally pay the highest commissions. Some brokers simply act as salesmen for one or two lenders. Competent brokers broker loans from multiple lenders.

Getting approved for a personal loan takes anywhere from several hours to several days, depending on the lender. However, once you have been approved, you only receive the loan after a waiting period of at least two weeks.

The reason for this is that the Swiss consumer credit law requires a two-week contemplation period during which you can cancel the personal loan at any time. You can cancel the loan with no reason needed within 14 days from the time that you and the lender sign the loan contract. Swiss lenders will not pay out a personal loan until the two-week waiting period has expired.

It can take several additional days for the money to be transferred to your bank account. Altogether, it can take up to 3 weeks from the time you apply for a personal loan until you actually get it.

moneyland.ch is an independent online comparison service and does not offer any loans itself. Your ZEK credit history is not affected when you submit a request for an application on moneyland.ch. However, when you actually apply with the lender by submitting a loan application, your application is registered in your ZEK credit history. You can learn more about the ZEK here.

Changing personal loans is easy in Switzerland. You have the legal right to terminate your personal loan at any time without penalties. Refinancing an existing personal loan with a cheaper loan can save you money. You can use the moneyland.ch loan refinancing calculator to find out if migrating your existing loan to a new loan offer is a good financial move. You can find more on this topic in the guide to refinancing Swiss personal loans.

Yes. Swiss lenders are increasingly digitizing the loan application process. Many lenders offer online loans which you can apply for without having to visit a branch office. Some lenders go a step further and let you complete the full application process digitally without receiving and signing a contract by mail. Online loans are listed as such in the personal loan comparison.

The Swiss consumer credit law (KKG) lays out the rules pertaining to consumer loans in Switzerland – including personal loans and credit card loans. The law defines the maximum loan size and maximum loan costs. You can find detailed information in the guide to the Swiss consumer credit act.

Adults aged 18 years old or older are eligible to apply for personal loans. However, some lenders only accept applications from adults aged 20 or older. Lenders also generally have age limits for personal loan applicants. This is typically 64-65. The terms of existing loan contracts cannot normally surpass the borrower’s 70th birthday.

If you receive a DI or OASI pension, you will not normally be approved for a Swiss personal loan.

Most Swiss personal loan providers require that you are employed on a non-limited basis. However, there are exceptions. Select the “Self-employed” option under “Employment” to limit comparison results to personal loans which self-employed individuals are eligible to apply for.

Most Swiss lenders do not give personal loans to people with temporary employment. But there are exceptions. Select the “Employed: temporary position” option under “Employment” to limit comparison results to loans which you can apply for with a temporary job.

No. You cannot get a personal loan from a Swiss lender if you are unemployed.

Some lenders have clearly defined minimum income requirements for personal loans. Some require you to earn a minimum of 30,000 Swiss francs per year, while others require incomes of 40,000 or 54,000 francs per year. Other lenders do not have fixed income requirements. The moneyland.ch personal loan comparison only shows you loans which you are eligible to apply for based on your net income.

No. To the contrary, you can deduct the interest which you pay – the actual cost of loans – from your taxable income. This deduction does not apply to leasing. You can find more information in the guide to tax deductions for loan costs.

Yes. You can repay a personal loan or make additional repayments anytime you choose to. You do not have to stick to the repayment schedule or loan term. If you are capable of making additional repayments or paying off your loan completely, doing this is a good financial move which saves you money. Swiss lenders are not allowed to charge any penalty fees for early repayment of personal loans.

You can calculate how much money you can save by repaying a personal loan ahead of schedule using the moneyland.ch outstanding debt and early loan settlement calculator.

Typically, lenders require copies of your last 3 salary statements and a copy of your passport or ID card (a driver’s license may be accepted).

Depending on the lender and your situation, you may be asked to provide additional documents. These may include: bank account statements; a copy of your residence permit; a statement from your municipal debt collection register; a loan statement if you are refinancing an existing loan; copies of property rental contracts; other documents specific to your situation.

Swiss personal loans typically have a minimum loan term of 6 months, though loans with 3-month minimum terms are offered. The maximum loan term ranges between 60 months and 120 months depending on the lender. The loan term is set when you apply for a personal loan, but it can be extended under some circumstances. Important: The longer the loan term is, the more you pay for the loan in total – even though the monthly payments may be lower than when you choose shorter terms.

The minimum loan size ranges between 500 francs and 20,000 francs, depending on the loan. The maximum loan size ranges between 40,000 francs and 250,000 francs depending on the lender and loan offer. Important: Loans in excess of 80,000 francs do not fall under the rules dictated by the Swiss consumer credit law.

Established Swiss personal loan providers include: Crédit Agricole next bank, Credit-now (Bank-now); Banque Cantonale de Genève (BCGE); Banque Cantonale du Jura (BCJ); Banque Cantonale du Valais (BCVS); bob credit from bob Finance; ècash, eny Finance; Cembra Money Bank; FinanceScout24, Lend (online loan); Migros Bank.