First Trust Bank Personal Loan

Good:
They do have online banking so you can manage your money and accounts online

Bad:
They charge a £50 arrangement fee with their loan

Verdict:
Higher interest rates compared to Bank of Ireland - small bank serving Northern Ireland that only lends to people with good credit

First Trust Bank is a local bank serving the community of Northern Ireland. They offer Personal loans between £10,000 and £14,999. You can apply for the loan for almost any purpose and you can pay it back over 5 years. You must be a First Trust Bank account holder and you must live in Northern Ireland to apply.

To apply, you can either go into your local branch or you can complete a personal loan online enquiry form and they will contact you. This form will only ask a few simple questions so they are able to get in touch with you. Within two days, one of their customer service advisors will contact you to discuss the loan. If you want to, you can do a loan application over the phone and the advisor will give you a preliminary decision. They will then go away and further assess your application to decide on a final decision. Be aware that they may ask you to provide supporting documents with your application to prove you can afford the loan. The advisor will then contact you informing you of their final decision. If accepted, the money will be transferred into your First Trust bank account within 3 working days.

Overall, First Trust Bank have poor reviews, with customers stating they had numerous direct debit problems, being overcharged and just generally poor customer service. They are known to be very busy during lunch and late afternoon hours, which isn't helped by the fact that their online banking service has been reported difficult to use.