Everyone knows that the is the one you don't have to use. If you can open other sources of funding, do so before you venture into the possibilities of these types of loans. There are many financial bodies that make some or most of their revenue from taking interest on personal loans and the actual terms and conditions depend a lot on whom you get it from.
Unless you are working in the bank sector, your budget might have taken a blow or two during the last couple of years. The quick fall of real estate prices coupled with high-rocketing interest rates on loans made the market very unreliable. It's only natural that people are trying to cut down on their costs and when it doesn't work, some extra loans can help. It's not advised to take multiple personal loans to pay one from the other (rob Peter to pay Paul), but if you crunched the numbers and found out that it's in your best interest, go for it. Be advised that these loans are not always easy to get approved for.
If you want a guaranteed personal loan, you won't probably get the cheapest one, period. The market works that way and the fundamental laws of the money business state that the interest rate is the bank's way to estimate their risk of giving you funds. The higher their risk is, the higher the rate, the better they trust you, the lower the price, and it's going to stay this way as long as we're competing on the free market. Ways of lowering the risks on the side of the lender involve many different approaches, one of them is simply asking for a credit report and using that to determine if you're worth the risk or not.
It sounds a bit sketchy, but credit reports might always be used to determine if they like your way around money or not. Other ways for banks to lower the risks of putting out lump sums, and thus achieving the cheapest loans for personal use, is asking for a ton of paper work. You may have to come up with proof of employment, paid bills, history of your credit cards, your financial situation and a dozen other things. In case you have the time and need the cheapest loan, you have to play their game.
Should you be in need of the capital on a short term loan, you don't have that many options. Institutions that don't ask for, or even care about your credit score usually can do so because they already put their price on the risk involved. It manifests itself in a quite high APR, which may be daunting at first. If you want to avoid more severe consequences using the quick personal loan and its high interest rate, you should go on and opt for a short term solution. These loans are not cheap; in fact they're quite expensive if you compare them to other sources.
People who are not that computer savvy often suppose that their best bet at finding the cheapest loan is grabbing a phone and asking banks in their local area. Using the net for this kind of activity is much more convenient and less pressing. You don't have to talk to salespeople, not pressed time-wise and can read all the fine print before applying, like you should do anyway.