Help

You tell us what you need and send a few ordinary documents. We work out what you can afford, put your application to the banks, and bring back what each of them will offer. You choose. That is the whole thing.

What you can apply for

Five kinds, and you choose at the start:

• A home loan — a bond over a house, a flat or vacant land.
• Vehicle finance — a car, a bakkie or a bike, new or used.
• Equipment and asset finance — machinery, plant, or anything else with a serial number.
• A personal loan — unsecured money, for whatever you need it for.
• Business finance — working capital, expansion, or bridging a gap.

The first three have something behind them the bank can take if it goes wrong, which is why they cost less. The last two have nothing behind them, which is why they cost more. If what you want can be bought on secured finance it will almost always be cheaper that way, and the screen says so.

What happens, in order

You apply. Four questions and an account. It takes a few minutes.

You send the basics. Your identity document, a payslip, three months of bank statements, proof of where you live. A photograph taken on your phone is fine.

We read them. Your name, your identity number, what you earn and what goes out each month are read off those documents so you do not have to type them. Everything we read is shown to you to check first — we may have misread something, and you have not.

We check it over. The same check a bank's credit desk does, before they do it: can the income carry the instalment, is anything missing, is anything going to be asked about. If something will cost you the application we would rather tell you now than have a bank tell you in a fortnight.

It goes to the banks. Not all of them — the ones most likely to say yes to an application like yours, because every bank you ask puts an enquiry on your credit record.

They answer. Usually within a few working days. You see each offer side by side: how much, at what rate, what it costs a month and what it costs in the end.

You choose. One button. The others are declined with thanks.

The money moves. A bond registers at the deeds office, which takes a couple of months at the attorneys, and we keep you posted the whole way. A car is paid out to the dealership and equipment to the supplier. A personal loan is paid into your account. Business finance is drawn down to the business. Only the first of those involves attorneys, so the rest are far quicker.

You are told which of those happened and on what date, in those words. Nobody will tell you your car finance has been registered at a deeds office.

What we are

We put your application to banks and bring back their answers. We are not a bank and we do not lend money, so we cannot decide what you get — but we know what each bank tends to say yes to, and that is the whole job.

What it costs you

Nothing. See What this costs you.