Home credit loans
Provident Financial has the largest home credit business in the UK and Republic of Ireland. After more than 125 years, our business continues to succeed by offering simple, transparent home credit services to customers on average or below-average incomes, some of whom can find it difficult to obtain or manage other forms of credit.
How home credit works
We provide home credit through the Provident Personal Credit and Greenwood Personal Credit brands, which share a network of over 400 branches and administrative facilities and provide small, unsecured loans, typically for sums of between £100 and £500.
Our customers use home credit for a variety of purposes, from special events like Christmas, weddings or birthdays to simply coping with an unexpected bill. Loans are delivered to the customer’s home by an agent of the company who then calls every week to collect the repayments.
Role of the agent
The agent is at the heart of the home credit service. Provident Financial's home credit businesses have over 11,700 agents in the UK, most of whom (71 per cent) are women. They often come from the same communities as their customers and have a real understanding of their customers’ needs and circumstances. Agents are paid commission based on what they collect, not what they lend, so it is in their interest to lend only as much as customers can afford to repay.
The agent’s weekly visit is not only convenient; it’s a useful reminder to put the money aside for the repayment too. If customers get into difficulty, they know they’ll get a sympathetic response and help from their agent to reschedule their repayments.
Repaying a home credit loan
Unlike other forms of lending, home credit includes all the costs up front. There are no extra charges whatsoever, even if a customer misses a payment. For those managing on a tight budget, it’s important to know that the amount to be repaid is fixed at the start and will never go up.
Further information or to enquire about a loan
Other home credit products
In addition to small cash loans we also offer a range of products to meet some of our customers’ other needs. We provide longer-term, larger loans – up to £2,500 over one to three years compared with the more typical £390 over one year.
We also offer our customers a pre-loaded Visa card. This is still a home credit loan, in that the agent collects repayments every week from the customer’s home; it simply comes as a ready loaded plastic card rather than as cash, so that customers can use it over the phone or on the internet.
We also provide shop cards and shopping vouchers via the same home credit collection format.