Beatrice found her world tipped upside down earlier this year. A talented young actor who recently graduated from London’s prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama, Beatrice had just landed a one-off role in an episode of a popular TV soap opera and was looking forward to auditioning for more TV work. She’d managed to make ends meet through acting since her graduation, avoiding lengthy periods of “resting”, as her fellow thespians tend to call being out of acting work.
Then disaster struck. Since her teens, Beatrice and her younger brother have been martial arts enthusiasts and she trains at least twice a week at her local karate club. During a recent training session, while sparring with a powerfully-built (and somewhat uncoordinated) young man who had just joined her club, she suffered a momentary lapse of vigilance – a big mistake for a Third Dan black belt like her. Intending to stop short of full impact, the young man unfortunately landed a full-force “roundhouse” kick to Beatrice’s mouth.
She suffered a significant dental injury. Rushed to A&E, she was horrified to find that the emergency dentist could not save her front tooth. For Beatrice, it felt catastrophic. She saw her acting career go up in smoke in her mind’s eye. Leading actors with missing front teeth aren’t exactly heavily in demand.
Initially, Beatrice agreed to have a dental plate made up to replace the missing tooth. But she really didn’t get on with it: it was uncomfortable and it distorted her speech. The dentist suggested another option which would feel and look exactly like a natural tooth: a dental implant. The bad news was that Beatrice would have to find £3,500 to pay for it: this option wasn’t available on the NHS.
The sense of hope elicited by this solution was quickly followed by despondency, as Beatrice began to realise that her borrowing options were very limited. She wasn’t a homeowner. She was a member of a profession noted for its notoriously unreliable income. And she felt sure that banks and other lending institutions would find her creditworthiness simply left too much to be desired.
Her brother helped her explore options and came across an article online from The Huffington Post featuring unique peer-to-peer lender platform Unbolted. What immediately struck Beatrice was the fact that Unbolted never resorts to credit searches before making a loan offer. Its unique model of secured asset loan relies instead on using a high value possession owed by an applicant as collateral for the borrowing. Unbolted stores the asset safely for the duration of the loan, returning it upon settlement or auctioning it if the borrower is unable to pay. Any excess above the value agreed at the time of the offer is returned to the applicant.
Beatrice was the proud owner of a used Steinway Boston 118 Upright Piano in excellent condition. Her grandfather, a classically trained pianist, had given it to her upon her graduation from drama school. When our expert partners verified its authenticity and valued it, we were able to transfer the £3,500 Beatrice needed directly into her bank account. Six months later, she’d not only got her new dental implant, she’d also landed a lucrative acting gig which enabled her to pay off the loan and reclaim her beloved Steinway.
