FAQ

Warwick Financial Services Limited is a company registered in the UK with company number 09011092. We are the owner and operator of this website. allthelenders is a trading style of Warwick Financial Services.

Warwick Financial Services is authorised and regulated with full Credit Broking permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority, our licence number is 622839. You can check the FCA register here. We are also registered with the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) with licence number ZA101793.

allthelenders (ATL) is a comparison website that specialises in short-term loans and alternative finance options in the UK. We provide information and comparison tools for various types of loans, including payday loans, installment loans, and other forms of alternative finance.

Our goal is to help individuals find the right loan for their needs and to educate consumers on responsible borrowing practices. We offer a range of resources to help borrowers understand their options and make informed decisions, including a loan comparison tool, and a blog with helpful articles and tips.

We work with a wide range of lenders and brokers in the UK, providing consumers with access to a large pool of loan options. The website is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and follows responsible lending practices.

A credit broker is a person or company that acts as an intermediary between a borrower and a lender. Credit brokers help borrowers find suitable lenders or loan products that meet their needs and facilitate the loan application process.

Credit brokers do not lend money directly to borrowers; instead, they work with a network of lenders to match borrowers with loan products that are suitable for their circumstances. Credit brokers can provide access to a wide range of loan products, including personal loans, payday loans, guarantor loans, and other forms of credit.

Credit brokers typically receive a commission from the lender for their services, however, the commission we receive does not affect the cost of your loan in any way.

It’s important to note that credit brokers in the UK are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which sets standards for their conduct and requires us to provide clear information to borrowers about the fees and services we provide. Borrowers should always check that a credit broker is authorised and regulated by the FCA before using their services.

It is common for multiple credit brokers to work together in trying to give the customer the best chance of getting accepted with a lender. Credit Brokers working together typically cover a much wider panel of lenders than just one broker on their own.

A credit broker acts as an intermediary between a borrower and a lender. The broker’s role is to help borrowers find suitable lenders and loan products that meet their needs and facilitate the loan application process. The lender, on the other hand, is the organization or financial institution that provides the funds to the borrower.

Credit brokers work with a network of lenders to match borrowers with loan products that are suitable for their circumstances. The broker may provide borrowers with access to a wider range of loan products than they would be able to find on their own. The broker may also assist with the loan application process, helping borrowers to complete the necessary paperwork (where necessary) and submit it to the lender.

Lenders may work directly with borrowers or may work with credit brokers to find new borrowers. Lenders may pay a fee or commission to credit brokers for each successful loan application they refer to the lender.

The relationship between a credit broker and a lender is based on mutual benefit. Brokers help lenders to find new borrowers, while lenders provide the funds that brokers need to help borrowers. It is important to note that credit brokers should act in the best interests of the borrower and not solely for the benefit of the lender. Credit brokers in the UK are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and are required to provide clear information to borrowers about their services and fees.

A payday loan, also known as a short-term loan, is a type of borrowing where a lender provides funds to a borrower for a short period of time, usually until their next payday. These loans typically have high interest rates and fees and are designed to be repaid quickly, often within a few weeks or months.

Payday loans are often used by individuals who need quick access to cash and have limited borrowing options, such as those with poor credit or low income. The loan amount is typically small, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, and is usually based on the borrower’s income and ability to repay.

While payday loans can be a convenient option for some borrowers, they also come with high costs and risks. The high interest rates and fees can make it difficult for borrowers to repay the loan on time, leading to a cycle of debt. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider the terms and fees associated with a payday loan and to only borrow what is necessary and affordable to repay.

A personal loan is a type of loan that is typically unsecured, which means that it does not require collateral, such as a house or car, to be put up as security for the loan. Personal loans can be used for a variety of purposes, including consolidating debt, making home improvements, paying for medical expenses or education, or for other personal needs.

Personal loans usually have fixed interest rates and fixed repayment terms, which means that the borrower makes the same payment every month until the loan is fully repaid. Loan terms can vary, but typical repayment periods for personal loans are between one and five years.

The loan amount for a personal loan can range from one thousand pounds to tens of thousands of pounds, depending on the borrower’s creditworthiness, income, and other factors. Lenders evaluate the borrower’s credit history, income, employment status, and debt-to-income ratio to determine whether they are eligible for a personal loan and at what interest rate.

Personal loans can be a good option for borrowers who need to borrow a larger amount of money. They can offer lower interest rates than credit cards and other forms of high-interest debt. However, it’s important to carefully consider the terms and fees associated with a personal loan and to only borrow what is necessary and affordable to repay.

Bad credit is a term used to describe a person’s credit history when they have a low credit score or a negative credit report. A credit score is a numerical representation of a person’s creditworthiness, based on their credit history and other financial information. Credit scores are typically calculated by credit bureaus using a range of factors, including payment history, credit utilisation, length of credit history, types of credit used, and recent credit enquiries.

If a person has a history of missed or late payments, defaults, bankruptcies, or other negative credit events, their credit score is likely to be low. This can make it more difficult for them to obtain credit or borrow money in the future, as lenders may view them as a higher risk of defaulting on the loan.

Having bad credit can also result in higher interest rates and fees on loans and credit cards, as lenders may view the borrower as a higher risk. It’s important for individuals with bad credit to take steps to improve their credit score over time by making on-time payments, paying down debt, and avoiding new credit applications.

Whether a short-term loan is right for you depends on your financial situation and borrowing needs. Short-term loans, such as payday loans, can be useful for covering unexpected expenses or bridging a gap between paychecks. However, they typically come with high fees and interest rates, and can lead to a cycle of debt if not repaid on time.

Before taking out a short-term loan, consider the following:

1. Do you really need to borrow money? If you can cover your expenses with your existing income or savings, taking out a loan may not be necessary.
2. Can you afford to repay the loan? Short-term loans often have high interest rates and fees, and can be difficult to repay if you have other debts or a low income.
3. Have you explored other options? Consider other sources of credit, such as credit cards, personal loans, or borrowing from family or friends.

If you do decide to take out a short-term loan, it’s important to only borrow what you can afford to repay, and to make sure you understand the terms and fees associated with the loan. Always read the loan agreement carefully before signing and be sure to ask questions if anything is unclear.

No, we do not charge our customers any fees whatsoever to use our services. allthelenders or Warwick Financial Services will never ask you to pay a fee to get a loan or use our website.

A lender is a person, organization or financial institution that provides funds to a borrower with the expectation that the borrower will repay the amount borrowed along with interest or other fees. Lenders can provide various types of loans, including personal loans, mortgages, car loans, and business loans.

Lenders make money by charging interest on the loans they provide, which is the cost of borrowing the money. The interest rate is typically based on the borrower’s creditworthiness, income, and other factors that determine their ability to repay the loan. Lenders may also charge fees for processing the loan, such as application fees or prepayment penalties.

Lenders evaluate borrowers’ creditworthiness and financial history before approving a loan. This includes reviewing their credit score, income, debt-to-income ratio, and other factors. If the lender determines that the borrower is a low-risk borrower, they may approve the loan and provide the funds.

Lenders can be banks, credit unions, online lenders, or other financial institutions. It’s important to choose a reputable lender and to carefully read the terms and conditions of the loan before accepting the funds.

Yes, we go to great lengths to ensure that your data is safe and secure with us. Data is encrypted before being sent to lenders using 256 bit encryption. You can always check that you are on a secure website by ensuring that there is a padlock in the top left corner of the URL bar.

Warwick Financial Services Limited is also registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) with licence number ZA101793.

In order for us to provide the services that we do, it is necessary for us to send your application data to our panel of partners for them to be able to make a decision about whether or not you are suitable for their product.

Warwick Financial Services is the data controller and responsible for ensuring that your personal data remains safe and secure, which is why all information is encrypted at the point where we send it. Your data is not used for marketing purposes outside of our firm, unless you give explicit permission to receive third party data at the point of application.

You could expect to receive communications from any of our partners that may offer you access to their services, for example, to communicate with you about a loan application.

For further information and a list of our partners, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Our primary goal is to help you get the loan that you are looking for, however, in some circumstances where we are unable to get an approval from a direct lender, we may work with a very carefully selected group of partners that offer alternative services that may help you secure a loan either now or in the future.

These product providers may offer services such as credit reporting where you are able to access your credit report and receive recommendations on how to improve your credit score, which would give you a greater chance of getting accepted for a loan in the future.

Whilst we take careful steps in selecting our partners, it is important that if you are offered any of their services that you thoroughly check for any potential fees or subscriptions that they may charge after any free trial period.

When you apply for a loan on allthelenders, we search one of the UK’s largest panel of direct lenders for payday, short term and personal loans (depending on your loan search criteria) to help you find a suitable match for your loan requirements.

Our technology allows us to send your application details to multiple lenders in just a few seconds and they will respond to us with a provisional accept or a decline. We use a series of filters that the lender provides to us to ensure that we are not sending you to a loan provider that would decline you if you were to make a full application with them.

You could consider this a ‘soft application’ whereby the lender has identified you as potentially being suitable for their product and would like you to make a full application on their website. When you are redirected to a partner website, you will usually find the application form is pre-filled with your details, so you don’t have to enter them again.

It’s important to know that during our process, lenders may conduct a soft credit search to assess your suitability for their products – this type of search is not visible to other lenders and does not harm your credit report. If, however, you are accepted by a lender they will require you to complete a full application on their website where they will conduct a hard credit search which will be recorded on your credit file.

Using allthelenders ensures that you do not waste your time making multiple applications to lenders individually which means multiple hard searches which will harm your credit report.

We use a series of filters based on the answers you give in the application process to determine those loan providers that are most likely to accept you, based on the lenders own application criteria.

For example, if you were to put in your application form that you are 18 years old, but the lenders minimum age requirement for a loan is 21 years of age, then we would automatically remove that lender as a potential match. This goes for other filters such as your income, time at address and loan amount or duration required (plus others).

We work hard to continually ensure our filters are up to date to ensure that the loan you are offered is what you are looking for. It is very important however to ensure that the answers you give in the application form and honest and truthful to ensure your best chance of getting a lender matched to you.

You are able to run price comparisons on our lenders using our comparison page which will give you a list of lenders and the cost of the loan you’re looking for. We then provide detailed information about what eligibility criteria they have and you can make a decision here if you want to apply just with that lender directly or to try multiple lenders at once using our Eligibility Checker.

No, we do not run credit checks on any applicants as we are a credit broker and not a lender. However, when you make an application on allthelenders, the lenders we send your details to will likely make a soft search to check your suitability for their product.

A soft credit search is only visible to you and nobody else and does not harm your credit score in any way. It is a useful tool lenders use to assess your suitability for a loan without having to submit a hard search which could harm your credit history.

If you are offered a loan from a lender, the lender will have to make a hard search on your credit file which will be recorded so it is important to ensure that the loan offered meets your needs and that you are confident in meeting the repayments.

The loan products offered on allthelenders are generally designed to help customers with some history of bad credit, such as defaults on historical debts, so whilst some bad credit is acceptable, it really depends on how much bad credit you have.

For example, if you are currently in default with multiple lenders then it is unlikely that another lender would accept you and you should work on reducing your debts rather than borrowing more to repay other debts. You can refer to our Useful Resources at the bottom of this page for help with this.

Our lenders are happy to consider some history of bad credit however and if you feel like you are in a strong enough position to take on more credit, you are welcome to apply.

Please remember that borrowing from high cost lenders like some of the lenders featured here, could potentially worsen any financial difficulty that you may have. Borrowing from high cost lenders is not sustainable for longer term borrowing.

If you are accepted for a loan with one of our lenders you will be automatically redirected to the lenders website, along with your details so you don’t have to fill in another application.

At this point, the lender may present a loan offer to you, subject to further credit and affordability checks. At this stage it is extremely important that you check all details of the loan offer, including;

• The amount of the loan offered
• The duration of the loan
• The amount and cost of each monthly or weekly repayment
• The ‘cost of credit’ or the interest the lender is charging on top of the loan
• The repayment method
• The APR of the loan
• The total cost of the loan, which is the amount borrowed plus the interest added together

Before submitting your final application to the lender please also ensure that you are comfortable with the offer and that you can afford the loan. You are still able to back out at this point with no harm to your credit file but once you submit the final application with the lender a hard search will be made.

If we are unable to find you a match with our panel of lenders and brokers, then you may be offered helpful products from some of our carefully selected partners to help you achieve your financial goals.

These types of services include credit reporting offers to enable you to see what it is that is stopping you from being accepted for a loan, or debt management companies that can help you with your debts and avoid borrowing more.

You can find a list of our partners within our Privacy Policy. If you are sent to one of our product partners, please ensure you check carefully for any trial periods or further fees or subscription payments due after a free trial.

Our price comparisons are 100% independent, fair and impartial. We list loan comparisons by the total cost of the loan (amount borrowed plus the interest) and they will be listed from the cheapest loan to the most expensive. The order lenders are presented to you in is not influenced by anything other than the cost of the loan.

Where more than one lender has the exact same total cost of borrowing, we randomise the order in which these lenders are shown with every comparison to ensure impartiality.

We use our own in-house comparison engine to power our comparison results and we control all of the data held within it.

We do not calculate loans based on APR as this is an annualised rate is not suitable for comparing short term loans accurately. APR’s will vary greatly between lenders and should not be used as a bench mark as to the cost of the loan.

Please remember, the cheapest loan option may not always be the best loan option for you and we encourage you to review the lenders application criteria where possible before applying.

It is impossible for us to give a definitive answer to this question, however, particularly bad credit could severely affect your chances of getting approved for a loan.

Whilst lenders are willing to consider some history of bad credit, repeated failures to repay (defaults) or having multiple loans will restrict the number of lenders that would likely accept you.

If you already have a lot of debt or defaults, borrowing from a high cost lender is likely only going to make your situation worse and you may wish to consider seeking assistance in managing your debts. See our Useful Resources section below for more.

Whilst you are welcome to apply, please be aware that the number of lenders that are able to help unemployed people is extremely limited and, at times, may be none at all.

Borrowing from high cost lenders during a period of unemployment could worsen any financial problems you may be facing.

There are other sources of help and support available, please refer to our Useful Resources section below for helpful links.

Applicants on benefits are welcome to apply, however, the number of lenders willing to consider applicants on benefits will be far reduced.

If you are in receipt of benefits, using high cost credit may make your financial situation worse and we would encourage you to seek alternative help by using our Useful Resources link below.

We welcome applicants that may be in receipt of pension payments as their main source of income, however, fewer lenders may be available to consider your application in comparison to those that are in employment for example.

Please consider carefully however if borrowing from high cost lenders could make your financial situation worse and that you are able to make any repayments in full and on time when needed.

Whilst you are more than welcome to apply, please carefully consider if taking on further credit is going to help you in the long run.

Lenders may consider applicants that already have loans, but it could be dependent on circumstances such as how many loans you have, when they were taken, if you are up to date with your repayments but importantly can you afford to take on more credit when considering your incomings and outgoings.

If you already have multiple loans, taking on more credit rarely helps the situation and we would encourage you to consider other ways to help manage your debt by using our Useful Resources information at the bottom of this page.

If you would like to access your credit score and see your full credit history, there are many free services available from trusted companies.

We would encourage you to use well established services such as Experian or Money Saving Expert’s Credit Club.

Both of these services are free of charge with no monthly or annual subscription payments required.

If you have a vulnerability or feel overwhelmed or unable to understand exactly what is offered on allthelenders, we would encourage you to visit our Vulnerable Customer page and make us aware of this.

We want everybody that uses our site to be able to make safe and practical decisions about using high cost credit and not to act on impulse or because they feel they have no other options. If you are unable to understand fully the risks associated with using any kind of finance, or unable to understand some of the wording on our website then please do not hesitate to either Contact Us or use our Vulnerable Customer page.

You can view our Vulnerable Customer Policy here.

If you require more information about a particular lender or product provider, you are welcome to Contact Us and we will be more than happy to provide you with any information that we can.

In the first instance, you may find it easier to contact the lender or product provider directly by using the Contact page on their websites, but if you need assistance contacting any lender please do not hesitate to ask us. Our email is hello@allthelenders.org.uk and you will usually get a response the same day.

If you are unhappy about your experience in using any aspect of our website, in the first instance we encourage you to Contact Us and we will work with you to rectify the situation.

For more information about our full complaints policy, please click here.

If you have a complaint about a lender or product provider, please contact them directly.

You must contact your lender as soon as possible and explain your situation with them. Your lender is duty bound to work with you and help you find a way to repay your loan in a way that will not put you into further financial hardship.

By delaying your contact with the lender, you may make your situation worse as fees, interest and charges could be added to your debt, increasing what you owe.

If you need any contact details for a lender, please refer to their website directly or feel free to Contact Us for help.

If you believe that you have been mis-sold a loan or granted a loan when you shouldn’t have been, you must contact your lender first and follow the lenders complaint policy.

If the situation cannot be resolved with the lender, you may need to refer to the case to the Financial Ombudsman service.

If you are feeling the pressure of debt then it is important to know that there is plenty of help and support available to you and that you are certainly not alone.

In the first instance, please do not apply for a loan as this will inevitably make your situation worse, further compounding the stress.

We have put together a list of Useful Resources at the bottom of this page that lists companies that can offer free debt support and advice and work with you to reduce your debts and repayments.