A large £6000 loan, a £7000 loan or even a £7500 loan is now available for those with bad credit that can find a guarantor to back their application. Guarantor loans over the years have had a maximum loan amount in place of £5000 that could be taken over a maximum period of 60 months (5 years). A unique new guarantor lender on the scene has changed this. This new guarantor loan lender is called Whitestar Loans who are based in Liverpool. They offer loans for bad credit between the range of £1000 and £7500 (there is no reference to the available term duration). You would assume that a £6000 loan or a £7000 loan would be taken over the period of 60 months or above. Loans for £6000 or £7000 are usually very difficult to come by for those that have a bad credit rating, but the loans discussed today do not require any credit scoring.

There is no requirement of credit scoring on the applicant since the emphasis is shifted on to the guarantor who will be standing in to back the loan application. This backing allows these loans to be more affordable with Whitestar Loans noting: “We challenge you to find a cheaper loan provider than ourselves”. As noted, a £7500 loan would be the maximum allowed cash that could be transferred within just 24 hours. I can’t imagine any bad credit loan lenders stretching above the £7500 mark, but this will be researched at a later date. Whitestar is very new on the scene at this time and so there are a few blanks to be filled in, but as their data flows in, the content here will be quickly updated.

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I have noticed recently that various guarantor loan brokers have been advertising guarantor loans up to the amount of £7500. I was unsure how this was possible, since most lenders for example Amigo Loans (previously FLM Loans) and Guarantor Loans Online will lend up to a maximum of £5000. It turns out that these £7500 guarantor loans are available from a new guarantor loan lender by the name of Whitestar Loans who are a new direct lender based in Liverpool. I have had a look on their site and there isn’t too much detailed information on the site at this time, noting for example any interest charges. There is a headline though that: “We guarantee to be the cheapest guarantor loan lender in the UK”. It does also state that they are the fastest guarantor loan lender and will pay out within just 24 hours.

As far as I can tell, most of the guarantor loan requirements and various specifics for Whitestar guarantor loans are very similar to that of Amigo Loans and Guarantor Loans Online. The interesting distinction is of course that maximum loan amount of £7500. This will make this lender very popular for anyone looking for an unsecured £6000 loan or perhaps an unsecured £7000 loan. I couldn’t find any specifics on the payment terms, but I would assume that they would cover up to 60 months (5 years) or longer. I couldn’t find any Whitestar Loans reviews at this time, but they do appear to be very new on the scene. The consensus seems to be that they are a small independent lender that have a great deal of potential and so it will be interesting to study their developments over the coming months.

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I was checking through the log files today for another financial site that I own and I noticed the incoming query “what happened to flm loans”. This lead me to make some searches online only to find that there has been a rebranding of the company. FLM Loans are now called Amigo Loans. Their about me page states: “We think friends are great. Good friends make us happy and Amigo believes friendship and trust make the world go round.” They follow on to say: “Our loans are based on friendship and trust. If you have a friend who trusts you and will act as guarantor for you, then you could be an Amigo customer. It’s that simple.” This is a simple rebranding from FLM Loans to Amigo Loans (Amigo Loans Ltd) that is still part of The Richmond Group. Perhaps this change is a savvy move on their part. It has certainly directed attention their way and got people talking about them.

Other than this name change, there isn’t too much to update in regards to their loan service on offer. I may have touched on this before today on the blog, but they do now offer £5000 loans to new clients. There was a time when their maximum loan was £3000 and an extension could be made at a later date to £5000. The other guarantor lenders on the market all offer £5000 to new clients, which is the likely reason for the newly crowned Amigo Loans making this change. Another thing to note is that the guarantor application can now be completed online, rather than via forms in the post. I only found out about this recently and it is a good change to speed up the process. I believe that this would be followed up by a Faster Payments Service transfer that combined would turn Amigo Loans into the fastest guarantor loan lender in the UK.

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I devised the Guarantor Loans Online and Mobile Money Comparison posting earlier today. This posting referenced Logbook Loans going bust and so I thought that it would be a good idea to cover this story in a separate posting. When putting together the comparison I was looking out for Logbook Loans who also operated via the Simple Fast Loans site. Both of these sites currently note the splash page of: “Nine Regions Ltd t/a Log Book Loans (in administration) has ceased trading”. After this splash page is briefly shown all visitors are forwarded on to the Hermes Property Services Limited site. Logbook Loans (Log Book Loans Limited) was the biggest logbook loan lender in the UK that was turning over many millions of pounds each year. Many may wonder the reasons behind this big name lender hitting the ground.

It actually turns out that the Office of Fair Trading decided to revoke their consumer credit licence back in 2009, but only succeeded recently when the lender lost their appeal. The reason for this was due to borrowers being asked to sign their paperwork on the spot without taking it away to read. To add to this, they were also caught pretending to work for solicitors to “mislead and intimidate consumers into paying” that would have took place when defaults were made. Logbook Loans went bust owing £10 million and the firm has been sold on to Hermes Property Services for an undisclosed sum. Hermes Property Services are now trading via any customers that will be directed to them via the forwarded domains. I was actually unaware that the Logbook Loans lender was mostly controlled by Iain Shearer who played as a professional footballer in Scotland.

Logbook lenders have always been met with much criticism by the UK press that I don’t feel has always been warranted since they are only offering opportunity to those turned down elsewhere. On this occasion though, the controversy surrounding the downfall of the biggest lender is certainly warranted that has been covered in-depth by the Mirror newspaper. This will certainly be a big shake up for the logbook loans industry in the UK where a great market share is now up for grabs. The logbook loans niche is interesting to study, with there always being new lenders popping up and plenty of interest from the public due to these loans requiring no credit check. Car Cash Point, Easy Logbook Loans, Mobile Money and V5 Loans will all now be licking their lips at the prospect of becoming the new big name for UK logbook loans.

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This posting follows on from the comparisons ran for Guarantor Loans Online against both Pounds to Pocket and Provident Personal Credit. As noted previously, Guarantor Loans Online rates are used since they offer a fixed APR charge, whilst FLM Loans only present a typical rate that can change. In all of the comparisons ran so far, Guarantor Loans Online have been proven to be the cheaper option, but we must move on now to the next comparison that will pit this guarantor lender against Mobile Money who I would now consider to the be the top logbook loan lender in the UK. The biggest Logbook Loans lender has Now Gone Bust and so Mobile Money have been used since they came out as the runner up in the alternatives posting found in the contents section. Logbook loans are of course secured loans, but require no credit check and so are always on the expensive side.

Guarantor Loans Online (53.8% APR) = 25.316% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £1253.16
/52 = £24.10

Mobile Money (Unknown APR) = 146.996% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £2469.96
/52 = £47.50

Mobile Money will require 12 monthly payments of £205.83. The figure above displays how much the actual weekly cost would be when we divide the full sum by 52 weeks. No APR figure is provided, as one wasn’t provided with their loan calculator (they display one on their site for another loan example, but their APR rates are likely variable). What is interesting about Mobile Money’s overall percentage charge of 146.996% is that I did take a note of Logbook Loan’s rate for this same loan amount a while back and it came to 172.871%. It surprised me that Mobile Money is cheaper, since Logbook Loans provided a cheaper rate in the alternatives posting when a 72 week loan period was used. Anyway, no big surprises today, Mobile Money is today the cheapest logbook loan lender, but even their rates are harsh that just shows how expensive logbook loans are. Guarantor Loans Online shines again with that charge sitting just over the 25% mark.

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The previous comparison saw Guarantor Loans Online and Pounds to Pocket go head to head for a £1000 loan taken over 12 months. Today’s posting will compare the same loan amount and term, but will replace Pounds to Pocket with Provident Personal Credit who is of course the most popular doorstep loan lender in the UK today. There is no way to receive a loan of this amount at Provident for new customers and so to obtain this data the provident loan calculator was used for returning customers who do have access to £1000 (returns can actually stretch as far as £2500). In comparison, Guarantor Loans Online offer £5000 to all customers. Both of these subprime loans of course vary greatly from each other. With Guarantor Loans Online a monthly premium will be taken from your bank, whilst with Provident a weekly payment will be collected from your door.

Guarantor Loans Online (53.8% APR) = 25.316% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £1253.16
/52 = £24.10

Provident Personal Credit (272.2% APR) = 82% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £1820
/52 = £35

If you studied the initial comparison you will see that the “Overall Cost” is a calculation that shows the total cost of a loan as a percentage of the original loan amount. Each loan has also been split by 52 to show how much the loan would cost based on a weekly basis (if need be this was rounded off). In the previous loan comparison the overall cost of Pounds to Pocket stood at 86.866% and so as you can see Provident has improved on this with an 82% overall charge. Even this though is still way off the mark from Guarantor Loans Online with that charge that sits just over 25%. Through my experiences I am already aware of how competitively priced guarantor loans are and this is now backed up by the current comparisons ran here. More data is of course essential and so further comparisons will be following soon.

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This first comparison will be made between Guarantor Loans Online and Pounds to Pocket for a £1000 loan taken over 12 months. Guarantor Loans Online have been used due to their fixed APR charge (FLM provide a typical rate and so this rate can change). Pounds to Pocket have been the first company to be compared due to their rising popularity here in the UK. This is a popular lender at the moment that is regularly running TV ad campaigns and is part of the QuickQuid family; I will introduce Pounds to Pocket in detail in a later posting. Typically, many guarantor loan applicants tend to apply for larger loan amounts such as £2000 or £3000, but the £1000 loan example used here is ideal to compare, since there are many lenders out there offering this same loan amount (they don’t tend to offer £2000/£3000 loans).

Guarantor Loans Online (53.8% APR) = 25.316% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £1253.16
/52 = £24.10

Pounds to Pocket (277.06% APR) = 86.866% Overall Cost
£1000 for 12 months = £1868.66
/52 = £35.94

The “Overall Cost” is a calculation showing what percentage of the loan amount we would have to pay back. For example, if a £1000 loan required a £1500 repayment then this would be a 50% Overall Cost. I have also added the weekly cost by dividing the total loan amount by the 52 weeks in a year (if need be this was rounded off). To get to the comparison, as you can see Guarantor Loans Online offer a highly competitive charge at just over 25%, whilst Pounds to Pocket is almost approaching 87%. This is a vast difference in value between each of these loans and provides some perspective on just how impressive the guarantor loan market rates are today. As noted in the initial passage, Pounds to Pocket will be introduced at a later date, as they are an impressive lender that will transfer the cash in just minutes. This is interesting considering that no faxing is required and they do offer a possible £2000. Guarantor loans Online wins the price comparison battle today though.

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EDIT: Log Book Loans Limited has recently ceased trading. You can read more about this in the post listed near the top of the contents listing.

Logbook loans have gained popularity over the years, mainly due to them being no credit check loans. Logbook loan lenders don’t require a credit check since they secure the loan against your car (or other vehicle). The loan specially works by the lender keeping hold of the logbook (V5) and usually the MOT certificate throughout the term of the loan. This means that they have the legal right to take your car should you not be responsible to the debt! These subprime loans do work out very expensive for longer payment plans and so you should minimise that borrowing term. In regards to the logbook loan lenders, three popular names include Logbook Loans, Mobile Money and V5 Loans. Two newcomers include Car Cash Point and Easy Logbook Loans. Logbook loans tend to stretch up to £50,000, based on the value of your car. The loan duration can also be stretched over a few years.

Only specific interest examples are provided by each lender and so this makes it difficult to gather a true picture of the value of each company. Logbook Loans (via Simple Fast Loans) and Mobile Money were the only lenders to provide logbook loan calculators. I would assume from these numbers below that Logbook Loans stand as the cheapest, although it would be interesting to see Car Cash Point’s rates for a 72 week term. An additional example has been made for Logbook Loans for just 24 weeks (6 months). A 12 month example for them has also been added in the summary below that compares them with a guarantor loan lender on the same terms. Also just to add, the weekly premiums marked with (RO) are simply rounded off! This is due to the initial payment usually differing to the regular payment amounts due.

Compare Logbook Loan Rates…
Logbook Loans | £1000 loan over 72 weeks @ £39.54 (RO) = £2846.86 (184.686%)
Mobile Money | £1000 loan over 72 weeks @ £41.81 (RO) = £3009.96 (200.996%)
Easy Logbook Loans | £1000 loan over 24 weeks @ £131.66 = £3159.84 (215.984%)
Car Cash Point | £1000 loan over 104 weeks @ £32.63 = £3393.52 (239.352%)
V5 Loans | £1500 loan over 78 weeks @ £56.26 = £4388.28 (338.828%)

Other UK Logbook Loan Lenders…
Logbook Lenders | £800 loan over 72 weeks @ £33.53 (RO) = £2413.98 (201.748%)
Loans 4 Logbooks (321.6% APR is displayed, but there is no loan example)

Many logbook loan lenders display interest examples that differ in the term duration to their competitors; they may do this to disguise higher rates. The only two logbook lenders that did provide logbook loan calculators was Logbook Loans and Mobile Money, which is why you can see the 72 week comparisons for each above; the calculator wasn’t actually found on the Logbook Loans main site, but on a secondary site called “Simple Fast Loans” (same content and theme, although Simple Fast Loans comes with the calculator). As it stands, it is Logbook Loans that works out the cheapest of the pack although that interest rate just below 95% on the actual amount borrowed is still very high for that short term. I used the interest as a percentage rather than APR, since I prefer it and also the Easy Logbook Loans quote was 24 weeks (6 months) with APR being an annual calculation.

If you checked out the subprime credit card and doorstep loan comparisons you will see that a recommendation was made in each section. This is not going to happen here with Logbook Loans. There are a few reasons for this such as there being no relationship with a lender here. A major concern is in regards to the cost of these loans. As an example, the Logbook Loans lender tends to provide the best rates for these loan types and for a £1000 loan with them for 48 weeks (12 months) you would have to pay back in total £2553.66. In comparison, with Guarantor Loans Online for a £1000 loan for 48 weeks (12 months) you would pay back in total just £1253.16 (that’s a massive £1300.50 guarantor saving). Logbook lenders tend to have limits in place for the vehicle age as well such as being under 8 or 10 years old. They also usually have to be completely free of finance and be in a good condition to merit their value. With this in mind, no recommendation is made here.

Recommendation: See above.

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FLM Quick (or FLMQuick) is the younger brother of FLM Loans belonging to the Richmond Group family. I didn’t take too much notice of this new product when it launched, but when investigating them recently I was certainly impressed with the low costs available. What FLM has created here is essentially a new sub-niche of guarantor loans, that act as small guarantor loans. FLM isn’t the only provider in town as well, with Guarantor Loans (Blackheath Ltd) also creating a similar loan product; you may remember that they have always provided large guarantor loans, but now they have lowered the amounts from £100-£750. Moving back to FLM, you may wonder why I have shown such support for them here? A lot of this has to do with the low costs involved.

FLM Quick loans have been designed as a cheap alternative to payday loans. The cost is certainly a major selling point, with FLM Quick charging just under 10% of the loan amount borrowed for a month, whilst the major payday lenders tend to charge around 25/30% interest for a month. Traditional payday loans are monthly loans that unfortunately incur large charges for rollover lending. FLM Quick has an answer to this allowing the customer to keep the loan for as long as they like and only having to pay the interest charge for the month and just 1% of the balance. No expensive fees and no need to pay off full balances here. All of this sounds great, but there is one issue that is of course the hassle of having to use a guarantor for a small loan. What should be noted is that the requirements for a guarantor are much smaller here. The guarantor is required to have a good credit rating, but they don’t have to be a homeowner and can be 18 years old.

The loan process is much more simplified, due to the loans being paid out within the hour (I believe they use the Faster Payments service alike Wonga). You receive online account management and should you wish to clear your balance at any time then you will only be charged for the periods that the loan has been borrowed over. The FLM Quick reviews online have been very positive as well and so it looks like the Richmond Group is on to a winner with this loan product. The loan amounts start at £50 and this steps up to a £500 loan. It would be good to them stretch to perhaps £750 or £1000, but perhaps the idea they have is to devise more manageable loans. As far as I can tell, these work out as the cheapest loans on the market next to payday loans and other alternatives such as doorstep loans and logbook loans. A future posting will compare the rates to see if this is the case. As the norm, a credit check is only used for verification. It is the guarantor that is judged and so regardless of a poor credit history… fast cash up to £500 awaits you.

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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.

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