Customers

We strive to help people access affordable financial solutions when and where they need it. Our customers have low-to-medium incomes and often have incomplete or no credit history so are regularly turned away by banks.

Our target consumer segment is not well served by the financial services sector for a number of reasons. For example, they may have hard-to-verify income, no bank account, no geographic access or internet access, or the small sums they require are not of interest to banks.

Our vision is to make a difference in everyday life by offering simple and personalised financial solutions. Our business model and product offering are designed to meet the unique needs of our customers and their different credit profiles, in a way that is affordable, flexible and approachable.

• Affordability: Affordability is central to our responsible approach to lending. Stringent credit procedures and affordability checks are made every time we grant credit, ensuring customers do not take on debt they cannot afford.
• Personal service: Our personal face-to-face relationships with home credit customers distinguish us from most other financial services providers, helping customers to stay on track with their repayment schedule.
• Forbearance flexibility: Our economic model does not rely on penalty fees and late payment interest charges. We take a sympathetic, flexible approach when a borrower faces difficulty in repaying their loan.
• Tailored products and services: We have a differentiated proposition from that of other credit providers. Our offer ranges from traditional instalment loans to digital and card-based credit lines, value-added services such as insurance and a mobile wallet offering.

In addition, our responsible lending principles create the foundation on which we act, putting our customers’ best interests first. This ensures affordability, fairness and transparancy, and support for those who experience repayment difficulties.

• Fair treatment and transparency – We know our customers and treat them with respect at all times. We lend responsibly and act openly and transparently so our customers can make informed choices.
• Communication and marketing – We always  provide information that is clear and easy to understand.  We take our customers’ data protection very seriously and keep all personal information stored securely.
• Creditworthiness assessment and indebtedness prevention – We always serve our customers in a responsible way, carefully assessing their financial circumstances with extensive affordability checks and clearly communicating our offer before lending.
• Financial hardship – Where our customers face difficulty meeting their repayments, we take a sympathetic, flexible approach to rescheduling repayments, or we can offer a payment holiday if appropriate until they get back on track.
• Complaints – We take customer complaints very seriously and work hard to overcome the issue. Complaints are always handled with care and in accordance with our complaints policies and the law.

As a responsible and inclusive lender, we invest in financial education initiatives throughout our communities.

While our customers are skilled at managing tight household budgets, our research into financial wellbeing highlights that many have never received any formal financial education, which can limit their ability to engage with the financial sector. Each of our businesses runs financial literacy programmes in partnership with charities or NGOs that are tailored to the needs of local communities where we work.