by Kate Flaxx

Created on: September 10, 2010   Last Updated: September 11, 2010

Applying for a loan at the bank is no longer the complicated process it once was.  The process has been simplified with the many different ways to apply for a loan such as the tradition ‘in person’ approach in addition to online application or telephone application. 

The waiting period to find out if a loan has been approved or not has decreased considerably. Once upon a time a loan applicant could wait up to a week, although now the approval waiting time can be as little as an hour or less.

 After applying for a personal loan from a bank, there are a few documents that a customer may need to supply to support their personal loan application.  After a customer has made an initial application, banks will more than likely want proof of the following;

- Proof of identity

- Proof of income

- Other documents

- Proof of identity

If the bank you apply for the loan with is your own personal bank, you may not be required to supply them with proof of identity documents. This would depend entirely on your bank and their procedures.  Usually, if you have a bank account with a certain bank and have held that bank account for a while with regular salary or other payments regularly being credited to your account, the bank will not request that you prove your identity again.

If you are not a customer of the bank you are applying to for the personal loan, you may be required to supply proof of identity documents such as a driver's license, passport and any other identifying document the bank requests.

- Proof of income

The bank needs to know that you are in a position to pay back the loan.  They will request payment documents such as pay slips or other statements that detail your income and the frequency of that income.

- Other documents

Banks will usually request information about your other assets and liabilities such as loans with other financial institutions.  This kind of information is usually part of the loan process and may not need to be physically proven on paper.  However, if they need to assess your application further, the bank may ask for statements such as amounts owing on other loans with other financial institutions or other documents to support your application.

The bank uses the documents in order to assess your loan application.  Providing the bank with what they need usually makes it easier for them to give you a speedy answer to your application. If everything goes well; you apply for a loan with a clear credit history and all your information and financial position is in check, the bank gets the information they need and you get your loan.

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