What do you do if you’re a highly successful partner in a prestigious City law firm and you need £35,000 fast, despite a hefty mortgage and eye-watering private school fees for your two children? This is the predicament that Gabriel found himself in this year: married to Jessica 25 year ago on Christmas Eve, he wanted to splash out for their silver wedding anniversary by having her peep out of the bedroom window on Christmas morning to find a high-end Lotus Elise Sport 220 sitting majestically on the drive.
Gabriel had £10,000 ready to hand, but he needed an extra £35,000 quickly, and he didn’t wish to approach traditional lenders for a long-term loan. Jessica had had a tough year; her beloved father had died suddenly in the summer, and she’d been doing her best to support her grieving mother whilst in the depths of her own bereavement.
Frustratingly, a major case was concluding, and Gabriel would have a big influx of money into his personal coffers in the New Year. But that was then, and his financial need was now. Discussing his benevolent subterfuge with a trusted friend and colleague at work, he suddenly saw an opportunity opening up before him. The friend, Ashley, had been in a similar predicament earlier in the year, needing to raise £20,000 fast. He discovered a unique peer-to-peer lender platform, Unbolted. Immediately, he was sure he’d come across a solution for his urgent borrowing needs.
Like Gabriel, Ashley needed funds urgently on a short-term basis as he knew a big settlement over a case he’d been working on was in the offing. He didn’t want to go through the time-consuming cumbersomeness (and intrusiveness) of credit searches and banking bureaucracy only to find out that he may be turned down. Some high-value individuals are wealthy; but that doesn’t mean they don’t occasionally experience short-term liquidity problems.
Unbolted collateralises high-value possessions owned by its applicants as security for the lending. For the platform’s pool of lenders, creditworthiness is beside the point - the asset is the security for the borrowing. The process is fast: upload a photograph of your asset onto the Unbolted site, and an indicative offer can ensure within hours. Once the platform’s expert valuation partners have determined the likely value of the possession on a secondary market such as an auction, monies can be transferred directly into the borrower’s account. This typically takes place on the day the asset arrives at Unbolted’s London HQ or valuation and storage partner such as H&H Classic Car Auctions.
Customers can repay in full earlier than the standard six-month term of the loan without penalty if they have the means to do so, If they can’t settle, the asset will be sold at auction.
In Ashley’s case, a beautiful antique violin was the asset. In Gabriel’s, it was the mint-condition Mark-1 Jaguar E-Type in his garage.
With the vehicle's secondary market value of £50,000, Unbolted was able to release £35,000 to Gabriel on the day the car arrived at H&H Classic Car Auctions. Now in safe storage, it’ll be returned to Gabriel once his payment comes in. In the meantime, Jessica will have a joyous Christmas and silver wedding anniversary despite her painful year.
