Many of the loans we offer are variable interest rate loans. In broad terms this means that your monthly loan repayments can change both up or down in line with money market interest rates. A loan where the interest rate is variable tends to be cheaper at commencement than a loan where the interest rate is fixed for the whole period of the loan. This is because the cost of the risk that interest rates might rise has to be added into the fixed rate loan. The choice of interest rate rests largely with your risk outlook and this is inevitably influenced by what the likelihood is that interest rates might rise or fall in the future. Variable rates tend to be more popular where the likelihood is that money market interest rates are going to fall and less popular when the likelihood is that they will rise. As at 1st March 2002 the money markets are anticipating a very small rise in interest rates in the UK over the next 12 months. For further details apply on-line straight away.