Personal loan secured by a savings account or a certificate of deposit (CD). These loans normally attract a lower interest rate - about two to three percent higher than the interest paid on savings or CD. Depending upon the bank, the loaned amount varies from 50 percent to 100 percent of the savings account or CD amount, with the typical being 90 percent. Passbook loans are usually issued without a credit check since the lender is under little or no risk of loss due to default. In most cases, however, banks don't report these loans to the credit bureaus and thus don't build up the borrower's credit rating.