What is a Direct Lender?
You may have seen the phrase broker or lender when looking into or applying for a short term loan
But what is a direct lender and how will it affect you?
Quite simply, a direct lender means the company you make your application with is the company who will, if successful, deposit the funds and with whom you will enter into a Credit agreement.
This gives extra protection as all lenders in the UK are regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Do Direct Lenders charge a broker fee?
A direct lender will not use an intermediary or third party company to provide the funds, therefore there will be no broker fees. This usually means the costs will be kept to a minimum as some brokers will be paid commission from the lender, or charge a fee to the consumer.
A broker fee can be added without the customer’s knowledge or consent – in some cases broker websites are not marked clearly so some customers can be under the impression a broker is actually a direct lender.
When the application is passed to the direct lender website, the customer is charged a fee – and because all the debit card and bank details have been submitted and the “terms and conditions” Agreed to there is little a customer can do.
QuidMarket is a direct lender. We do not charge any upfront fees. We do not charge you if you are unsuccessful. We will not share your information for sales or marketing purposes unless specifically requested by you. We will NEVER pass your details on to another lender for a fee.
We do not charge any transfer fees, late payment or default fees.
What are the advantages of working with a Direct Lender?
Data Protection
It also means your information and personal details are kept “in-house” and not passed from one company to another. There have been cases of Credit Brokers passing personal details onto other Credit Brokers who also charged for their services.
Another danger of using a broker is you are not in total control of what loans you are applying for. In some rare cases, a broker may also charge a separate “referral” fee that can be ongoing on a weekly or monthly basis – something you may find out when the fee is debited from your account.
In the past, some brokers were not clear on their website that they were not the Direct Lender and some even masked or hid their charges. Using a broker for a pay day loan is not really necessary as you can check the costs yourself using a price comparison website.
You can also check on the lenders website or give them a ring and they will be happy to give you a quote over the phone – remember to make sure you ask for the Total Amount Repayable rather than compare the APR.
No unsolicited emails
Often, after being referred to a direct lender from a brokers website a customer will have agreed to the terms and conditions – sometimes without the customer’s knowledge. This usually can include permission to have your details passed to any number of other companies to be sent marketing emails offering products and services.
This in turn can lead to cold calls, emails and texts that can be difficult to get rid of as there is very little you can do to find out which companies have your data.
The best way of avoiding this is to deal with direct lenders only.
Flexibility
Here at QuidMarket we only charge interest for the amount of time you have the loan for. If your circumstances change and you want to pay your loan off quicker we are more than happy to help you with that.
Our philosophy is that we are here to help our customers and so, unlike some other companies in the short term high cost credit market we do not charge any early settlement fees and will always reduce the interest accordingly.
Our flexible loan repayments mean you are in control. Use the sliders below to find out how much you would pay back on a loan. You can change the amount to borrow and the repayment period to suit. Once you are happy with the instalment amounts you can continue with your application.
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QuidMarket is fully registered and certified with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Warning: Late repayment can cause you, serious money problems. For help, visit: moneyadviceservice.org.uk