How It Works

With Quick Loans, you can apply for an amount that suits your circumstances. Our minimum amount is £100, and the Maximum is £10,000. For many reasons, it is better that you only apply for the minimum amount that you need. One of those reasons is that you are not paying interest on the money you didn't need to borrow. Another reason is that your chances of being approved will be increased if you apply for a smaller loan amount.

We all dislike form filling, we've tried to keep the number of questions down to a bare minimum. We aim to see your application approved, but we do need to ask certain questions so that lenders can confirm the repayments for the loan amount you are applying for is affordable. Affordability checks are completed using estimates, so you don't need to start digging out the paperwork to be specific. The good news is that the most difficult question you will be asked is for the details of the bank you would like the money paid.

We know that borrowers want certainty so they can plan their finances. All decision are decisions in full, not in principle. In less than 90 seconds, you will receive either an "approved" or "sorry your application was declined" message. We promise that you will get a clear yes or no. Decisions are displayed live online whilst you hold for a short amount of time.

We wouldn't be called Quick if payment took four days to get to you. We know what borrowers want. We've been in this business for over 11 years and understand that fast payments are expected. When you have had your application accepted, you will instantly receive a text message, this will contain a security code that you will need to text back to prove you are who you say you are. Once you have responded to that text message, the money will be sent. With most major UK banks now being on the faster payment system, money is received instantly after sending.

Chances are that you will have come across the term "Affordability Checks" before, but how do they work, and how do lenders use them to make decisions?

In our opinion, they don't work, and they never have. Affordability checks are a box-ticking exercise for virtue-signalling politicians who want to look good but don't do anything in reality.

When we talk about affordability checks. We only mean the 12 questions on the application form that asks for incomings and outgoings. Other credit and affordability checks may still take place, and we don't make comments about those. 

This is how the checks are supposed to work. Using a very generalised example: An applicant will complete the application form and tell the lender how much money they have coming in every month. They will then complete another section on the form that informs the lender how much they have going out each month. The lender will start with the money coming in (say £1000) and deduct how much is going out (say £600). This leaves £400, if the loan repayment amount is less than £400 a month, the applicant can afford the repayments, and the applicant has passed the affordability check.

In-depth checks are what they do for mortgage applicants - those affordability checks do work. In the real short-term credit world, they don't because lenders don't know whether or not the applicant has just invented the numbers out of thin air.

Lenders are not going to accept applicants who claim their incoming is £1 million a month. Similarly, they will be sceptical of applicants claiming they have no outgoings each month. We don't believe lenders give these numbers much credence. They have other methods.

To check whether or not the customer has fabricated the numbers would cost the lender around £100 per applicant to investigate and verify. That's not going to happen in low-cost unsecured lending. The unsecured credit industry would grind to a halt overnight if they tried. Alternatively, companies would need to bring out application charges to cover the cost of checks.|

There is a final option, the law could punish anyone who isn't accurate with this information. Should someone default and the debt end up in court, the judge could prosecute applicants for fraud if they lied on their application. That would work.

So to keep the FCA from visiting them, everyone in the industry pretends they do work. In our opinion, they should be scrapped and the pretence of affordability checks halted. We need to go back to a system where the term "Credit shall be granted to people over the age of 18" means something again. 18 is the age where the law believes someone can legally understand what they are doing and enter into a contract for credit. People need to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions. Personal responsibility is what will lead to a fall in consumer defaults, not more pretending.

That's just our view. The FCA have another view, and it can be found on their website. We ask that all applicants are accurate on their application form.