Blancolån (unsecured loan)
A blancolån is a loan with no collateral behind it. The lender has nothing to repossess if you stop paying, so the decision rests entirely on your creditworthiness and the interest is higher than on a secured loan like a mortgage. Private loans (privatlån), most card credit and quick loans are all blancolån.
Why the rate is higher
With no security, the lender prices in the risk that you cannot repay, and the weaker your credit profile the higher the rate. When you compare offers, look at the effektiv ränta, the effective rate, which folds in fees and the repayment schedule, not just the headline nominal rate. Two loans with the same nominal rate can cost very different amounts once fees are counted.
The interest-rate cap
Sweden caps consumer-credit costs by law. Since 1 March 2025 the interest may never exceed the reference rate (set by the Riksbank) plus 20 percentage points, tightened from the old plus 40. A separate cost cap means the total you pay in interest and fees can never exceed the amount you borrowed. The cap now covers almost all consumer credit, not just the old "high-cost" quick loans; mortgages are the main exception.
No more interest deduction
Interest on loans without security used to be partly deductible like mortgage interest. That has been phased out: only half was deductible for the 2025 income year, and from 1 January 2026 the deduction is gone entirely. Interest on secured loans, such as a mortgage or a car loan with the car as security, is unaffected. This makes an unsecured loan meaningfully more expensive than before.
Two changes made unsecured borrowing stricter and dearer. The rate cap dropped from the reference rate plus 40 to plus 20 percentage points on 1 March 2025, and the tax deduction on the interest was removed from 2026. Both were meant to curb household over-indebtedness, so a blancolån is best treated as a short-term bridge, not a long-term habit.