I have been writing until my fingers feel like nubs, and I am not getting much closer to replacing the roof, painting the house or having the house rewired. It is times like this when I am tempted to take out a personal loan. There are two reasons I won’t, however. My credit is not so hot, which means I’ll pay a high interest rate. Also, if I don’t have the money to pay for the repairs now, I likely won’t have it later, and if I do, I’ll resent having to pay off debt. That’s just how I am.

For people with bad credit personal loans can be difficult to get from a traditional lender. This is because traditional lenders do not give loans to people who they perceive as being high-risk borrowers. Other lending agencies can lend money to higher-risk borrowers, however, and will usually charge a higher interest rate to make up for the number of people who will inevitably default on their loan.

The best kind of loan to get when you are in a crisis is a personal loan with no interest–meaning from a family member if possible. The thing with this kind of loan, though, is you have to pay it back very promptly, or you risk damaging the relationship. You should never ask for a personal loan from someone you know unless you are one-hundred percent certain that you’ll be able to pay it back.