Applying for a Personal Loan: Terms, Requirements and Process
What Is a Personal Loan? Definition, Terms and Distinction
A personal loan is a loan to a private individual, where the money is transferred to your account without a specified purpose and without collateral such as real estate. You decide yourself what to use it for: a car, renovation, debt consolidation, education or a bigger purchase. Legally, in Switzerland it is a consumer loan under the Swiss Consumer Credit Act (CCA/KKG), and that is exactly your advantage: the CCA requires a creditworthiness check, caps the interest rate and gives you a right of withdrawal.
Why is it even called a "personal loan"? The term distinguishes it from a business loan: it is about private purposes, not company financing. In practice, "personal loan," "cash loan" and "consumer loan" mean the same product. The terms and legal rules are identical in all three cases, only the name emphasizes a different aspect.
The terms follow a clear framework. The loan amount ranges from CHF 5'000 to CHF 300'000, the term from 12 to 84 months. The interest rate is fixed for the entire term, as is your monthly installment: no surprises, no variable swings. The effective annual interest rate currently moves between 4.9% and 9.95%. Which interest rate applies to you depends on your creditworthiness, your income and the chosen term.
A word on interest, because a lot gets compared here: the effective annual interest rate is always what counts, not the nominal rate. The effective annual interest rate includes all costs of the loan in a single figure and is the only legally mandated benchmark for comparison in Switzerland. An offer with a nominal rate that looks low but has high ancillary costs can end up being more expensive overall.
The genuinely difficult part in Switzerland is not the price, but getting approved. Not every bank accepts every profile, and anyone who applies to several banks one after another on their own leaves traces in their credit history with every inquiry and worsens their own starting position, often without ever learning why an application failed. That is exactly where privatkredit.ch comes in: we know the providers in the market and know which bank prefers which profile. You submit one request, we prepare it and obtain the matching offers for you.
Why Apply for a Personal Loan Through privatkredit.ch?
What Requirements Apply for a Personal Loan?
The requirements for it are manageable, and most borrowers meet them anyway. In the end, the decisive factor is the statutory creditworthiness check: the loan must be affordable from your freely available income.
Applying for a Personal Loan in Four Steps
Submit request
Enter the loan amount, term and a few personal details into the online form. This takes about 2 minutes, is non-binding and free of charge.
Application is reviewed
We forward your request to matching Swiss banks. They review your application and your creditworthiness in accordance with the CCA.
Receive loan offer
Within 24 hours you receive several loan offers at once and compare interest rate, term and installment at your leisure.
Loan agreement and payout
You choose the suitable offer and sign the loan agreement. After the 14-day withdrawal period (Art. 16 CCA) has passed, the amount is transferred to your account within a few business days.
Personal Loan, Consumer Loan or Cash Loan: What's the Difference?
This question comes up again and again, and the answer is simpler than you'd think: in Switzerland, all three terms describe practically the same product with the same rights and obligations.
| Feature | Personal Loan | Consumer Loan | Cash Loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | CCA | CCA (official term) | CCA |
| Payout | To your account | To your account | To your account |
| Restricted purpose | None | None | None |
| Max. interest rate 2026 | 10% eff. | 10% eff. | 10% eff. |
| Right of withdrawal | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Creditworthiness check | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
"Personal loan" distinguishes itself from a business loan, "consumer loan" is the legal term under the CCA, "cash loan" emphasizes the direct payout to your account. What ultimately counts for you is the effective annual interest rate and which bank accepts your profile.
Personal Loan: What You Should Watch Out For
Always compare by effective annual interest rate
Only the effective annual interest rate includes all costs and is the legally mandated benchmark for comparison. A low nominal rate alone says little.
A shorter term saves on interest
The longer the term, the lower the monthly installment, but the higher the total interest costs. Choose the shortest term that fits your budget.
Withdrawal period and payout
After signing the contract you have a 14-day cooling-off period (Art. 16 CCA). Payout only happens after that. The CCA protects consumer loans up to CHF 80'000 with this right of withdrawal.
Prohibition of over-indebtedness
A loan may not be approved if it would lead to over-indebtedness (Art. 3 UCA). The creditworthiness check protects you, but may limit your credit ceiling.
Frequently Asked Questions About Personal Loans
- Autor
- privatkredit.ch Editorial Team, Specialist Editorial Team for Loans & Financing
- Fachliche Prüfung
- Redaktionsinterne Gegenprüfung durch Kreditfachleute
- Zuletzt aktualisiert
- July 7, 2026, Inhalte werden laufend aktualisiert
- Unabhängigkeit
- Unabhängige Recherche, ausschliesslich offizielle Schweizer Quellen
- 1Swiss Consumer Credit Act (CCA/KKG), SR 221.214.1. fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2002/593/de
- 2ZEK - Central Office for Credit Information. zek.ch
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