would or past continuous? [closed]

Both forms are acceptable but they mean slightly different things:

The first one says that 'they' were advising people not to do something which they were actually in the process of doing themselves (in other words they had applied for a loan and it was being considered by the lender when they were speaking).

The second one says that they were advising people not to get a loan but would get one themselves if they wanted one.

It is also possible to say "They used to tell people not to get a loan but they all got one themselves." which would mean that they got the loans themselves either before or shortly after they were telling others not to do so.

However the grammar of both original sentences is incorrect in two ways:

Firstly in English we do not say "get loan" without an article and the usual article is the indefinite one 'a' so the sentences should read "They used to tell people not to get a loan...".

Secondly each person who gets a loan gets their own loan, there is not just one loan for everyone. This means that the part of the sentences which reads "...would get it themselves." should read "...would get one themselves."

This is different from someone applying for a benefit from the government or some other agency. In this case the benefit is usually considered to be the same benefit for everyone, it's just that each person just gets a small part of the money available. In that case you can say something like "The government set up a lockdown benefit and we all got it."