Lendwise loans

When you initially provide your information to Lendwise, we conduct a “Quotation Search”. This will not impact your credit score. This search takes a “snapshot” of your credit history without leaving any footprints visible to other lenders when they look at your credit report. We then use this information to evaluate if we are able to offer you a loan that can be funded on the Lendwise platform. If we can, we will send you a loan proposal for your review and acceptance. Once you accept to proceed with the loan proposal, Lendwise will carry out a full search with a view to posting the loan on the Lendwise platform so that it can be funded. Please note: a “full search” will leave a visible footprint on your credit report, as would be the case with any provider.

One of the criteria to be eligible for a Lendwise Loan is to possess a clean credit record, so there should be no arrears, defaults, CCJs, etc.  We see the existence of instances such as arrears and defaults as an inability to service one’s debt properly by a borrower, which is not great if you are asking to borrow more money!  Although such an instance might have been a once-off incident in the past, as a responsible lender we have a duty towards the platform lenders to present them with high quality loans to fund as well as a duty of care to borrowers  by not creating further indebtedness that could be detrimental to them.

Lendwise Loans are primarily for tuition fees, where we disburse the money directly to the university. However, in some cases we can include a small amount for maintenance in the loan which would be disbursed to the student when they start their course. If eligible for the government’s post-graduate loan also, it is our understanding that this is disbursed straight into the student’s bank account to be used for either tuition, maintenance, or other study related expenses.

The simple answer is yes! We lend to students with scholarships and/or government post-graduate loans. Lendwise can also lend to those with existing outstanding undergraduate student loans. Furthermore morally, and as a responsible lending platform, Lendwise does take into consideration the affordability of repayments for perspective students with outstanding loans.

Our borrowers are primarily UK residents studying for a postgraduate degree or a professional qualification who require a loan to fund their studies. We also welcome applications from other European or International candidates with an offer from a UK university or other certain European universities and/or Business Schools. If you are not a UK resident you will need to provide us with your own local credit report which is dated in the last 30 days after submitting your application online. Please note your credit report should be the official document in PDF form and should contain your Credit Score as well as your account records and payment history. Please also note that we require your Credit Report to be in English – if the report is not provided in English, you will need to have this translated in English and provide the translator’s contact details.

The data in your application is used in a sophisticated algorithm to produce your score which reflects our expectation of your repayment ability and affordability of the loan; depending on where the score lies, your application will be processed for funding, rejected or sent for further review by a senior underwriter.

We believe in the potential created by education, therefore we place considerable emphasis on education related variables to evaluate your application. We compare this information against the latest statistical data to derive conclusions on employability and expected salary levels that reasonably impact on your ability to repay the loan. Such variables include:

• University/Institution standing
• Course standing
• Course duration
• Study mode
• Undergraduate degree university

At the same time, we recognize the importance of other, “hard” metrics to reach a more balanced, realistic score such as:

• Credit score
• Work experience
• Salary
• Loan amount
• Own contribution to studies
• Other sources of income

No, a low credit score does not disqualify you from applying for a loan. A good-excellent credit score on the other hand, enhances your overall Lendwise score thus increasing your probabilities of being eligible for funding. However, we recognize that in many cases the low credit score will be associated with the absence of financial commitments as a result of your young age. We will treat such cases with the utmost care and diligence by having a senior member of staff in the underwriting team thoroughly examining them before reaching a final decision.

No, you do not require a guarantor or co-signer in order to be offered a loan with Lendwise. Remember, our student-friendly loans are tailored to your personal circumstances and based on a holistic representation of your overall profile beyond just your financial profile.

Our evaluation process caters for this possibility and resorts to assess your repayment ability and affordability based on statistical data produced by university alumni associations and other employment related agencies. This data associates employability and starting salary levels to the educational institution and course of attendance thus allowing us to replicate your expected salary levels following graduation.

The age factor is assessed in our model albeit not with a high weight. You must be at least 18 years old to be eligible to apply for a loan from our platform. As a post graduate education and professional qualification loans platform we expect most of our borrowers to be in the range of 25-35 which by reference to employability and income levels appears to be the optimum, however no application will be rejected on the merit of age provided it satisfies the minimum of 18 years.

If your application produces a lower or upper level borderline score we will not provide you with an immediate response. The application will be reviewed further by a senior underwriter who will exercise his/her professional judgement to decide on either processing the application further on not.

Your loan application will be assessed by Lendwise once it is completed and submitted. We aim to provide you with a loan proposal that will be suitable for your education endeavours and within your projected loan repayment capabilities whilst being attractive to Lenders on a risk adjusted basis to provide loan offers. Sometimes it is not possible to match those objectives and rather than offering you a high burden debt that may potentially lead you to financial difficulties we will not proceed with a loan proposal. If this happens to be the case, we are truly sorry and hope that you are able to find alternative means to pursue your aspirations. Should you feel that your circumstances may have changed at a future date, we would encourage you to apply to Lendwise again.

*Please note that the terms “commitment fee”, “administration fee” and “origination fee” are often used interchangeably. This means that there might be instances where these terms are used to refer to the same concept. It’s important to understand that this phrasing does not indicate a preference for either term, but rather highlights the potential for their interchangeable use in various contexts.

We do not have uniform interest rates, instead every borrower is charged a different rate commensurate to the specifics of their application.

Interest rates quoted are a combination of three components namely term (duration) of the required loan, the general level of interest rates in the UK economy and the credit risk factor as this is determined by the scorecard result. As a general rule, shorter term loans with a low risk factor (i.e. high scorecard result) will be associated with lower interest rates.

APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is an index which shows the annual % cost of a loan, in other words what it will cost you per year if you settle the loan as per the agreed repayment schedule. It takes into account any upfront fees paid by the borrower as well as the timing of repayments. It does not consider late payment fees. APR is a helpful tool as it allows you to compare the cost of similar products on a like to like basis.

Once your application successfully passes the underwriting stage we will notify you by email. We will also send you our provisional loan offer with the details of the prospective loan including interest rate and APR information for your review and acceptance.

No, our interest rates are fixed. In this way you can easily budget your cash flows with regard to repayment over the term of the loan and expect no surprises following a sudden increase in the general level of interest rates in the economy.

Interest is included in the monthly instalment as per the agreed loan schedule which you will get together with the loan agreement. Provided you pay your instalments according to plan you can expect interest to reduce gradually as time passes.

The date of the first repayment of your loan will be shown on your provisional offer details and on the loan agreement under the introductory section. You will also be able to view it under the loan repayment schedule on your Lendwise dashboard. In general, borrowers in full-time education will benefit from a grace period for the whole duration of the studies (and potentially a short period following completion of studies of up to 6 months). Repayments for borrowers in part-time education will, most of the times, commence the month after the signing of the loan agreement.

The period of your studies (and potentially a short period following completion of studies of up to 6 months) will be termed the “grace period”. This grace period is a period of time where no payments are expected to be made by you towards your loan, neither in relation to capital nor in relation to interest. During this grace period you will not incur any overdue interest, penalties or late fees. However, interest on your loan is calculated for throughout the whole of the grace period and added to the balance of the loan. Please note that grace periods apply to borrowers in full-time studies.

The loan agreement specifies the exact date of the first and subsequent payments as well as the instalment amount payable. This information is also available on the provisional offer sent for your review and acceptance as well as by clicking on “View Payment schedule” on your dashboard following acceptance of the offer.

Lendwise collects repayments on behalf of the lenders through direct debit once a month. We will ask you to sign a direct debit mandate once the provisional offer is accepted whereby you will provide us with the details of your bank account to use in the direct debit procedure.

You can surely repay your loan early without incurring any fees. Please contact us at borrowers@lendwise.com or call 0203 890 7270 if you need to find out more.

If you miss a repayment, we will contact you the following day to collect the missed payment. We will try to establish contact with you by repeating the process within the next 90 days at frequent intervals but if we cannot agree on a repayment time plan or the situation persists, and you incur further missed payments, we may terminate your agreement and refer you to a collections agency and further charges could be levied on you. Missing a repayment may result to you being charged with additional charges as stipulated in the loan agreement. It may also negatively affect your credit rating.

We advise you to contact us in advance if you envisage any difficulties in servicing your loan in line with the loan agreement. We will try to help you by working out a fair solution. Please contact us by email at borrowers@lendwise.com or by telephone at 0203 890 7270.

Lendwise does not offer financial advice but you can contact the following organisations which offer free, impartial, debt advice for UK residents:

• Citizens Advice Bureau: www.citizensadvice.org.uk
• StepChange Debt Charity: www.stepchange.org or 0800 138 1111
• Money Helper Service: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en or 0800 011 3797

If your circumstances have changed, for example, you have changed jobs, and you wish to change the date your monthly direct debit repayments are collected, you can email borrowers@lendwise.com with your request. We require at least 2 weeks’ notice before any amendments can be made, and will do our best to accommodate your requirements. Please note, changing the date on which your monthly repayment is collected, may effect the overall amount of interest accrued. In most cases your monthly repayment amount will stay the same and any adjustment will be reflected in the final monthly repayment of your loan. We will of course notify you of any changes once your date change is confirmed.