There hasn’t been much coverage on FLM Loans here at Guarantor Loans UK so far and so this posting will provide a small review of the brand as they are functioning in 2011. FLM Loans arrived on the scene in 2005 and arrived as the first guarantor lender on the market. There was unsecured loan providers catering the subprime market before this time, but most were focused on credit checks, which is something that FLM Loans wanted to change. The guarantor applicant does have a basic credit check carried out on them, but this is made for identification and to simply check that they aren’t currently bankrupt. What determines the outcome of the loan will be the guarantor who steps in should the borrower happen to default at any time. Sam Wells is the managing director at FLM, who are a brand of The Richmond Group that is headed by James Benamor.

In 2011, FLM Loans have continued to move forward as a popular lender. When checking through the Google search volumes for all relevant terms, “FLM Loans” receives four times as many searches as the “guarantor loans” term does in a month and so this just shows how popular the brand is today. What is the reason for this? Well, I haven’t seen any FLM Loan TV ads and there isn’t extensive coverage online in comparison to perhaps the major payday loan lenders. In my view, the brand awareness has been greatly improved by the promotion received from Money Supermarket who themselves have become a dominant force in various competitive financial markets. Another reason is that The Richmond Group have continued to unleash new financial products such as Debt Line that would have helped to get people talking.

At this time, there are just three guarantor loan lenders. Other than FLM Loans, we have Guarantor Loans Online (from Central Trust PLC/UK Credit) and also TFS Loans (from TFS Loans Ltd). All guarantor terms are picking up in search volume and there seems to be many more guarantor themed sites popping up, which should help to keep a competitive edge with all the lenders and hopefully improve the loan products available. FLM Loans can boast one of the cheapest guarantor loan rates at 49.9% APR! The issue here is that this is a typical rate rather than fixed and so it doesn’t include broker fees and they can also up this rate should they feel fit to do so. FLM have a well designed site that includes account management and lots of thorough information throughout the support section. Because they have been active for such a long time now, they have managed to attract a loyal customer base and have setup further avenues to find more on such social sites as Facebook and Twitter.

The FLM Loan feedback is mostly positive and this is evident at the Review Centre. The FLM Loan reviews on this site were very supportive standing at a rating of 4.3/5 from around 400 reviews, which was a 91% thumbs up. This is an impressive track record and elsewhere the feedback usually stands in the green. They have won a number of awards in the world of finance and continue to work on lots of charity projects that is always good to hear. There are of course many other impressive subprime loan lenders operating on the market today and so shopping around in 2011 may just be the best way forward. Further analysis will certainly need to be made in the future to see just who can provide that very best deal.

(common misspellings/related: flmloans, garantor, guarantor lender, loan finder uk, unsecured loan uk)