Difficult: getting credit on top of loans is hard (8)
I believe the answer is:
ticklish
'difficult' is the definition.
('ticklish' can be similar in meaning to 'difficult')
'credit on top of loans is hard' is the wordplay.
'credit' becomes 'tick' (I've seen this before).
'on top of' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'on top' mean this).
'hard' becomes 'h'.
The initial letter of 'loans' is 'l'.
'tick'+'l'+'is'+'h'='TICKLISH'
'getting' is the link.
(Other definitions for ticklish that I've seen before include "hard to handle" , "Problematic" , "Sensitive to touch or requiring careful handling" , "Delicate - easily excited to laughter" , "easy to get to laugh?" .)