Why are so many fair credit consumers being declined for loans by traditional lenders?

We’re not ones to ‘talk shop’ much about ourselves.

Houman Motaharian, LendingPoint’s CRO

But because one of our own is participating as part of an expert panel at Money 20/20, the leading Payments and Financial Services Innovation conference, we feel the need to share. Our Chief Revenue Officer, Houman Motaharian, joins other industry-leader peers in a discussion on how to enable credit for underserved borrowers, people in the “fair credit” range. This topic is part of who we are as a company, and it underscores what we do well, and how we do things differently.

Allow us to set a little context:

Occasionally we’re asked how is it that we’re able to set ourselves apart, and do what we do. What is so special about what we do? We offer fair credit loans — personal loans made to borrowers with FICO scores in the 600s. This term, ‘fair credit,’ is what makes us unique. You see, fair or not (we did that on purpose), consumers with average or fair credit often don’t get access to personal loans at reasonable rates, much less with flexible terms.

Borrowers with less than perfect credit have fallen through the cracks of what most lenders focus on these days. Especially since the recession, traditional lenders must exercise lending requirements stringent enough to leave all but the best credit score consumers looking elsewhere. Many a fair or average credit consumer who has been knocked about by an unexpected life event has also been rejected for a loan from a bank or credit union. Even most online lenders are unable to confidently identify creditworthy customers who may have less than prime credit but who are on their way to regaining or building financial strength. While some of them may be able to consider customers with lesser scores than what traditional lenders will do, many online lenders also don’t fully serve the segment of borrowers who are average. Sadly, being overlooked is something that seems to be accepted for those of us between two ends of a spectrum — middle children, average students, average employees, etc. — the list goes on. You get the drift.

That’s where LendingPoint comes in. While we don’t like to brag, we’re proud of the expertise, innovation and bench strength of our company’s leaders. Our team’s expertise and approach to lending has allowed LendingPoint to give people with less than perfect credit access to affordable installment loans. We’re able to see beyond a customer’s credit score to understand their full credit story. Making fair credit loans, fair again is what we do best. As Houman says, “Most lenders don’t understand the potential of the fair credit consumer but at LendingPoint, we not only understand their potential, we help our customers get there. We’re focused on seeing our customers become financially stronger.”

Take access to money at fair rates, add funding within 24 business hours of approval and paperwork completion and then layer upon those things the warm, respectful service we give each of our customers 24/7, and now you have the answer to how we set ourselves apart. It’s a package deal, beginning to end, for the life of our customers’ loans. And, while we love it when our customers come back for another loan — because they value our relationship and trust us to do right by them — we feel we’ve done our job when customers are also able to obtain a personal loan from a traditional lender later down the road. Then we know that their on-time payments and handling of the installment loan with us helped them rebuild credit. Now, that’s what we’re talking about!

Check us out for yourself at www.lendingpoint.com. See how our loans are better, and how much you could qualify for. And, while you’re at it, use our handy loan calculator to discover what kind of installment loan payments and terms fit your budget.