Disrupting Credit Cards: A Q&A with LoanHero’s Kristin Slink

LoanHero

paperless, decisions are instant, and the platform gives merchants all the tools they need.

X: How is LoanHero “disrupting the lending paradigm at point-of-sale?”

KS: Merchants currently utilize multiple financing programs to be able to provide financing options to their customers.

LoanHero provides a single platform in which we cover the full credit spectrum, allowing the merchant to submit one application and receive the best offer for that customer based on their credit. Without LoanHero, merchants would need to “guess” on which program their customer would qualify for, and submit multiple applications for various financing programs. Imagine the awkward conversation a merchant or sales rep has when their customer is declined for multiple financing options while they are trying to make the sale.

X: Don’t credit cards serve that purpose?

KS: Credit cards from Synchrony Financial and Wells Fargo dominate financing at the point of sale today. However, this option caters to the upper half of the credit spectrum and is not a fit for all customers. All big bank credit cards offered at the point of sale have an interest rate between 26.99 percent and 29.99 percent, but are often sold with an initial promotional offer of 0 percent interest. The terms of these credit cards are not entirely transparent, and LoanHero is passionate about fixing that with easy-to-understand terms and disclosures.

Our process begins with a soft credit inquiry, which does not affect a customer’s credit rating, and enables the customer to see what financing option they would qualify for instantly.

X: Are you targeting a high-risk credit market?

KS: LoanHero focuses on the middle-market in regards to our balance sheet, but we have multiple high-risk lenders integrated into our platform today, providing a full spectrum of financing solutions.

X: Is LoanHero focusing on particular cities? What is that strategy?

KS: LoanHero is currently focused in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. We have plans to expand nationwide in September.

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.