If you have to have a personal loan it may be a sign that your bills are getting out of control. With many people this kind of problem can be easily avoided if you will adopt a good strategy. Here's one.

Stop using credit cards and start paying for everything with cash. If you don't have the cash to pay then begin to save a small amount of money every month until you do have the money to pay.

Often a personal loan can be useful to pay off high interest rate credit card debt. You'll need to make sure that you can get at least 5% lower interest rate on the personal loan to make this worthwhile. One way to reduce that interest rate is to apply for a secured personal loan.