The home credit service
We pride ourselves in providing home credit in a responsible well managed way. We provide, small, unsecured cash loans - typically sums equivalent to £200 - borrowed over a short period of between six months and two years.
In most cases a local agent serves customers in their home where they can deliver the loan and call each week to collect repayments. There is a single fixed charge for credit issued and no default or penalty charges - even if a customer misses a repayment or takes longer to repay their loan we will work with them to resolve it. The agreement is totally transparent - what our customers see is what they pay - which allows them to budget and control their finances.
Our 1.8 million customers choose home credit because they want small, affordable amounts of credit that can be repaid in fixed, regular amounts. They like the fast, convenient and personal home service, our simple application procedure and the fact that, unlike many other financial institutions, we don't ask customers to provide a guarantor.
Going forward, we plan to introduce new credit products to customers and we're already piloting a range of different loan products in Poland and the Czech Republic. If these tests are successful then we may introduce these elsewhere when the time is right.
Our customers use their home credit in many different ways, be it to pay for a special family event like a wedding or a holiday, to replace a kitchen appliance or repair the car. Some customers simply use their loan to help them to balance the household budget.
Local agents are the face of our business, dealing with customers day in day out in the comfort of their homes. They work hard to develop personal yet professional relationships with their customers so that they can make informed lending decisions. And because representatives are mainly paid commission on what they collect rather than what they lend, it's in their interest to lend the right amount for that customer's needs - there's no reason, therefore to try to lend more than a customer can afford to repay.
We're good at keeping our customers happy and it's the key to our success. Many of our customers return to us for more loans because they like home credit and the service we offer. And it's not just us saying it many of our customers tell us they like and value our home credit service and many would recommend us to a friend.
Five reasons to believe
Customers like our home credit service because:
We're fastWe deliver rapidly - typically within 48 hours of our first customer contact.
We're accessible
Our loans are delivered in the home by our agents, the majority of whom are female. This 'loan to home' approach is valued by our customers and facilitates gathering additional information before a loan is granted.
We're inclusive
Our customers are typically not well served by banks. They often have no credit history and prefer to use cash. Our simple and transparent approach appeals particularly well to this customer group.
We're personal
An agent is key to the customer relationship - meeting the customer each week in their home to collect repayments. They make further loans as appropriate and as their knowledge of the customer's payment history and credit requirements develops.
We're flexible
Our approach to credit is distinctive. On our home collected product no interest is added for late payment, there are no hidden charges and no default charges because we understand that it can be difficult to manage the household budget when the unexpected happens.