There is an entire industry dedicated to making loans for people with bad credit, so generally speaking it is not too difficult to get credit when yours is bad.
Having bad credit implies increased risk to the lender, so they make up for this by charging higher rates of interests and reducing the time span of the loan. This means people getting personal loans for people with bad credit will be expected to pay more and will have larger regular payments than someone with good credit. This applies to almost any sort of loan: a credit repair mortgage, home equity loan, poor credit auto loans, and so on.
It is because these loans get a bigger return over a shorter period of time that lenders offer them. However, to be approved you have to convince the lender that you are a good bet even with the increased risk. This means that if you are shopping for car loans or personal loans for people with bad credit you will be asked to document your current financial situation in detail: how much you regularly make, what your outstanding debts and liabilities are, how much money you have saved (whether as cash, investments, or retirement plans), and so on. Therefore, if you are applying for a loan and have bad credit, you can save everyone a lot of time by having all of your documentation ready at the time you apply.
Precisely how bad your credit is also plays an important role in determining how much risk is involved and thus how much more you will be expected to pay. For this reason it is well worth the effort to clean up as much of your credit report as you can. Try to erase debt as much as you can. Many lenders have fixed terms spanning a range of credit scores, meaning that your exact credit score will determine the term by which they will lend to you. As a consequence, almost any minor improvement to you score, even of just a few points, may move you up into a different bracket and amount to notable savings.
You should also consider carefully explaining this situation and circumstances that resulted in your bad credit in the first place. Although most lenders do have fixed terms based on the exact credit score, in the end your loan will be reviewed by a human being. Having a detailed explanation of why your credit is bad, what you did to fix it, and you intend to continue improving it may make the difference between getting your application approved or denied. This can be particularly helpful if your bad credit stems from a one time problem, like an incident resulting in massive medical bills or divorce.
Even if there is no good explanation, you may still be able to get a loan. There are loans for just about any purpose. Believe it or not, there are even fast loans for the unemployed. You just have to be willing to pay the cost!
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