A pick-up in personal loan applications in the June quarter has accelerated in the September quarter.According to the latest Veda Quarterly Consumer Credit Demand Index, applications for personal loans rose 12.1 per cent in the September quarter, compared with the September quarter last year.Personal loan applications fell in the four quarters from June last year to March this year but then turned around with growth of 7.3 per cent in the June quarter.Veda's general manager of consumer risk, Angus Luffman, said in a statement that a big lift in housing construction was behind the recent increase, with an increase in spending on household goods such as furniture and electrical items financed by personal loans.He said new entrants into the personal loan market, such as RateSetter, SocietyOne and DirectMoney, were also having an impact on the volume in personal loan applications. Their entry has prompted consumers to do some shopping around.Credit card applications, which grew strongly in the March and June quarters, grew by 1.7 per cent in the September quarter.Luffman said the lower growth in credit card applications in the September quarter reflected a pullback in the marketing of credit card deals, such as zero balance transfers.