To pawn or not to pawn, that is the question. Or at least it was for telecoms engineer Connor and his family when they discovered that the much-loved Golden Retriever pup (“Benson”) they’d acquired just a week ago was seriously ill and needed an operation. Adored by Connor’s two small children, Benson had a congenital obstruction of his throat which prevented him from eating solid food. When the vet told him that the operation would cost £4,500, Connor almost felt his knees buckling. The four-week free pet insurance Benson came with from the breeder didn’t cover abnormalities that puppies were born with. Unless Benson had the operation, he would be a very poorly animal and it would be kinder to put him to sleep, the vet had advised.

There was absolutely no way that Connor could consider letting Benson suffer or put him to sleep. Yet he knew he’d face difficulties getting a loan: he’d recently been approved for a credit card and a car loan, and felt certain that another credit search would simply dent his credit score and result in him being declined.

Connor and his partner began scouring the Web in search of borrowing options, exploring options with peer-to-peer lender platforms. They liked the idea of lower interest rates and fast decisions. But they didn’t like the fact that they’d definitely be subject to another credit search and would probably be declined unless they could demonstrate an impeccable credit history. Their credit history really wasn’t long enough for that, and two recent significant borrowing episodes would almost certainly indicate to p2p lenders that he was risking financial stress by trying to take on another loan.

Connor was confident that he and his wife could afford another loan. Both had recently been promoted at work and their income could stretch to a short-term commitment without undue duress. But convincing either traditional or alternative sources of finance was another matter.

As it happened, he owned a rare, early nineteenth-century British five pound gold coin – an heirloom that had been handed down by one generation to another in his family since a distant ancestor had acquired it somehow or other as a serving soldier. To save Benson, Connor was prepared to pawn the sovereign.

That’s when his partner came across an online article from The Guardian newspaper describing innovative new peer-to-peer lender platform Unbolted. Unbolted’s secured asset loans meant that he wouldn’t face another credit search: if it was valuable enough, the gold coin would act as security for the loan. But unlike pawnbrokers, Unbolted’s interest rates weren’t eyewateringly high. While pawnbrokers charge anything from 69% to 162.54% representative APRs, Unbolted’s technology slashes the costs of borrowing, allowing it to offer a representative APR of just 40.3 per_cent.

Our valuation partners, Lyon and Turnbull and Fellows valued the sovereign at £6500 on resale in a secondary market when Connor uploaded an image of it. That allowed us to make an immediate provisional offer of £4500. Once the sovereign had been sent to us for safekeeping via our next day courier service, we were able to release the funds into Connor’s bank account.

He repaid the loan in full and has his fine sovereign back in his possession and Benson is a healthy, thriving dog after his successful operation.