Getting a loan in Germany

has anyone gotten a private credit/loan from a German bank? i'm not looking to buy a house, just borrow maybe €10k.

i'm still paying off my student loans and am considering taking out a loan from a bank in germany to pay them off since (1) the € is stronger and (2) i saw some low-interest private loans available now (and since my student loan rates went up to 7.1%...[ my rant here]). i assumed since i have no collateral and no one to vouch for me here (well a very good friend of mine here offered to do this for me, he also offered to lend me the money, but no, he's my friend & should stay that way), that the bank would just laugh. but this german friend of mine doesn't see what the problem would be. i am waiting for my bank to call me, but thought i'd post here since TT is great.

Try ING Diba.

what? so it's possible? you've gotten a loan from a German bank?

can't see how it would be a problem
back in my wild days i ran up a multitude of debt, overdrafts etc and the bank let me convert them to loans every single time

thankfully those days are past
*touches wood*

I got a loan from my bank when I bought my car with out anybody acting as a guarantor. They simply looked t my imcome and monthly expenses and thought I could afford it.

I had a loan last year from HVB as they had a special, and it was only 3%. Paid it back in one year, this year, I took out a loan at Sparkasse for 2000, and will pay that back in one year too but at 10% interest . Both were for trips. I just told them much better that way as opposed to using overdraft at 15-17%.

edit- make an appointment at your own bank, take your last 3 pay slips, and your passport with residency. Easy peasy, they will let you know in about 30 min.

Yup - if you have a job, have had it for more than a year or so, have no bad marks on your schufa and are taking out a reasonable loan it shouldn't be a problem.

Okay great. Thanks!

As DDBug says, if you have a regular income and no credit problems a loan should be a piece of cake. A while back I was getting mail shots from various banks almost on a weekly basis OFFERING me loans!! I actually think that's quite bad - encouraging people to get into debt - 'cos as usual a lot of people are gullible and think they're getting something for nothing. Just read all the small print for hidden charges!

There's also an irony that the less you borrow and the shorter the term, then the more it costs you. €5000 over a year will attract interest rates of 10-12% per annum but borrow €25000 over 6 years and 3-4% is the norm with many companies. This encourages more and long term debt...

UPDATE!!!

I just got back from my Postbank consultation. As YL6 wrote above, the shorter the term, the higher the interest rate. i was looking at 10k EUR at a term of 48 months max, they offered me an interest rate of 7,67% with a term of 47 months at the monthly payment i was looking at. at a higher monthly payment, with 36 months, interest was 7.99%!

their online portal offers 5.75% at a repayment term of 36-59 months! i showed the lady this and she confirmed that you do pay for human contact. she was also very insistent on knowing when i would want the money & i said i needed to think about this in peace and quiet. I'm also getting some private financial advice from a friend before i make a concrete decision. if so, i'd go the online application way.

It's standard to have lower interest rates for larger loans and over longer terms. Bear in mind that these are annual rates, so at the end of the term you will usually have repaid less with the higher interest rate.