Top lead exchange company LeadPoint has launched a ‘payday loan’ scheme in the UK following great success with the plan across the Atlantic. The scheme is designed for those on low incomes whose budgets require loans to cover the cost of cheques and other payments. This method could stop households earning between £15,000 and £35,000 per annum from sliding into debt.
Applications are taken online with the funds deposited that same day, when the payday for the specified client comes round the amount is then debited from their account. The amount that clients borrow varies between £80 and £1000 although there is no fixed limit.
Nick Chapman, LeadPoint UK’s managing director, says: ‘Payday lending is the fastest growing UK consumer finance product. By launching into pay day loans we are taking another step to becoming the number one lead generator in the UK.’
Established in California LeadPoint gathers all leads together in one place for ease of access for potential buyers. It is one of the premier exchange sites, where sellers and buyers are both rewarded for high quality lead information.
Chapman states: ‘LeadPoint have already established themselves as a major player in the online payday leads market in the US, and with the UK launch we hope to achieve the same success.’
But payday loans have come under fire in some quarters for being a short-term fix to a much more serious problem. Industry expert Nutthadej Chandumrongdej cites various common factors of those who take out payday loans: ‘Studies show that payday loan borrowers are not really in a temporary crunch. They’ve actually been experiencing credit problems for quite some time. And a payday loan usually is a new thing the borrower has found out about that they believe will help them along in their long-term financial hardship.’
Chandumrongdej sees payday loans as a modern equivalent to the pawnshop and suggests that many borrowers who use payday loans may also have frequented these establishments in the past: ‘Pawnshops used to be one of the main places where payday loans were applied for before payday loans started becoming more commonplace. Pawnshop visitors are usually people who have been dealing with long-term financial hardship. And a pawnshop just might have the answer for some of these people.’
This assertion is backed up by a surprising rise in the fortunes of pawnbrokers with the country’s leading firm Albemarle and Bond reporting a 28% profit increase in the last year. And according to research carried out by the Citizens Advice Bureau substantially fewer people encounter problems with pawnbrokers than with mainstream lenders. Charles Nicolson, chairman of Albemarle and Bond, puts the reason for his industry’s success down to the immediacy and simplicity of the process: ‘If you need to borrow £100 quickly to change the wheel on your van, the time for shopping around has gone. For an established customer we can provide a loan in three or four minutes.’
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