The Loan Agreement between borrower and lender is formed and executed electronically on the JustUs platform. The agreement is deemed to have been formed by the use and actions of all parties and processes clearly defined as (1) an individual lender(s) makes an offer and (2) a borrower accepts the offer; as set out in The Loan Agreement.
The Loan Agreement is NOT a Regulated Consumer Credit Agreement. This by virtue of JustUs' services being that of; "An electronic platform in relation to lending."
The individual (not a company) lender on JustUs is categorised as a Non-Consumer Credit Act lender. It is only Consumer Credit Act Lenders that need signatures on Consumer Credit Agreement' to make an agreement enforceable, therefore no signatures are required to formalise The Loan Agreement.
To operate the JustUs platform and marketplace, JustUs receive commissions and fees. These fees are payable by the borrowers.
Example Fees paid by the Borrower.
A borrower receives a £3,500 Loan, including the £245 set up fee, at Risk Rating A over 2 Years.
Total Monthly repayment of Loan £216.00
£ 175 per month of repayment is interest & capital to Lender
£ 41 per month paid to JustUs to cover Rainy Day Pot, fees and commissions
We will only put forward a loan proposal that you can afford. None of our lenders will want to lend to a person who is not in a position to repay the loan. Our Lenders are happy to participate in loan agreements for amounts between £2,000 and £1,000,000+ and for periods of 1 - 5 Years.
If you apply for an amount we feel is unaffordable, we will say so and provide you with a loan amount figure we feel you can afford and over what term, based on your income and outgoings. This will be known as your Risk Rating Max Loan.
We will need you to provide us with details of your weekly/monthly income and all bills. We may also need a copy of your most recent bank statement showing your monthly income being credited to your bank or building society account.
If you do not have a high enough credit score, you will need to find a Personal Guarantor. We will need to speak to your Personal Guarantor. They will need to provide us with their verbal permission to carry out a soft footprint credit check. This does not leave a mark on their credit record.
In addition to this they will need to sign an agreement to confirm they understand their obligations and this signature will need witnessing,
No. When you join the platform you will be provided with a membership number. This number will be displayed throughout the process. We will show potential lenders the amount you wish to borrow, the loan purpose and over what time period you wish to take the loan over.
Yes and for any purpose.
If you are behind on any credit, the loan will need to be a consolidation loan and it must improve your financial position.
Example: You are paying £500 per month on payday loans and credit cards and you have fallen behind. If the loan is for say £250 over say 3 years, you are in a better financial position.
Your rating is determined by a number of factors, the main one being your personal Equifax credit score.
To boost your credit score a number of additional points are awarded.
Length of time in Job
Occupation/Profession.
Amount of mortgage owing.
Spare income after all bills paid which would be used to pay your agreement.
The above are examples, but not exclusive as all factors can be considered to improve or reduce your Risk Rating.
The interest rates available are from 3.5% for those with the best credit score to 60% with those with the lowest acceptable credit score.
No. We do not charge any up-front fees or charges. There is a setup fee for your loan upon successful creation of the loan agreement; this will vary between £40 and £995. In the case of unsecured loans, a percentage of this fee goes to the Rainy Day Pot.
Your loan is for a fixed period and a fixed monthly payment. Interest is calculated monthly on the amount you have borrowed.
In the case of a capital repayment loan, in the early days you will be paying more interest than capital and as your loan nears the end of the term, it will be more capital than interest.
Where you opt for an interst only repayment type, the interest will be calculated and applied monthly on the outstanding loan balance. You will need to repay the amount you borrowed at the end of the loan term.
Yes. You will only need to pay the months interest due when settled and no other charges apply. Just email us at [email protected] to request an early settlement.
The most important thing is that you contact us if you have missed a repayment or will struggle to meet your next repayment. We will aim to do everything we can to help.
Where you have a guarantor on your loan we may approach them to make payments on your behalf.
It is important to note that any missed or late payments could incur additional costs and as such increase what you owe. Multiple missed payments could also have a negative impact on your credit score.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties there are organisations that can help with impartial, confidential and free advice.
StepChange 0800 138 1111
National Debtline 0808 808 4000
JustUs.co is Authorised and Regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority.
All you have to do is fill in your personal details via the Register tab.
We will need to carry out some security checks to verify your identity and you may need to provide us with a copy of your passport or driving license if our initial checks are not satisfactory.
You can deposit monies via a number of methods;
- Bank Transfer (most banks now transfer within seconds via Fast Payments)
- Standing Order (for regular payments)
Once your money is confirmed as received into the Barclays Bank client call account, the amount will show in your JustUs account the same day. You can then start lending.
Once registered and monies are credited, you can set your account to lend automatically via Auto-Bid to the Risk Rated borrowers you are happy to lend to. You can determine the amount per applicant and the term you wish for your monies to be lent out for.
One way you can lend immediately is by purchasing pieces of loans already up and running. These Micro-Loans may become available as another lender needs access to his cash so will sell his loan interest onto you.
Auto-Bid is a feature that enables you to make loan offers to new borrowers as soon as they become available. It is the best way of making use of your capital so that it is always working for you as opposed to sitting on deposit earning little or no interest.
If you choose to use Auto-Bid you will be able to choose which Risk Rating borrowers you would like to lend to and the denomination you would like to lend to each borrower.
Example: You have £2000 to lend, and you would like to lend to Risk Rated A1 and you would like to lend £100 to each borrower, you will essentially have placed bids to lend with 20 borrowers within that particular risk band.
Auto-Bid is principally a tool which allows you to lend to more people and in the process spread your risk.
When the loan offer has been accepted by the borrower, a standing order will be established to collect the monthly loan payments.
Once a loan that you have bids on has been accepted by the borrower, we will send you confirmation of the loan details. The borrowers can set up the loan repayments within 27 days of loan completion and you will receive notification once a loan repayment is made, this will detail the capital amount repaid that month along with the amount of interest earned.
We have created a simple and easy to view lender dashboard.
Each time you login you will directed to your personal lender dashboard, which displays all the information about your loans granted and monies pending to lend.
This will be given our highest priority.
In the event that a borrower is late with a loan repayment, we'll be the first to know. As soon as we become aware that a borrower has fallen behind on their payments we will contact them on your behalf to find out the reasons for missing a repayment and when we can expect it to come in.
If the borrower has experienced some financial difficulty, we will give the borrower 7 days to catch up. If the borrower has a Personal Guarantor, we advise the borrower that we will be seeking repayment of the outstanding loan repayment from their Personal Guarantor if payment is not made within the 7 days.
If the loan is secured against property we will take the appropriate action to sell the property and repay the lenders their capital and interest due.
For more information on our debt collection policy and process please contact us.
If the borrower falls into default and no payments are being received in respect of their loan agreement, interest payments to you as a lender will not be made. As a priority we will take action to recover the debt on your behalf (See: "What if a borrower does not pay?" for details).
Additionally for unsecured risk grade loans we may call upon, at our discretion, the Contingency Fund (Rainy Day Pot) on behalf of lenders, should the monthly loan payments not be received.
The contingency fund we offer does not give you a right to a payment so you may not receive a pay-out even if you suffer loss. The fund has absolute discretion as to the amount that may be paid, including making no payment at all. Therefore, investors should not rely on possible payouts from the contingency fund when considering whether or how much to invest
Please follow this link for further information
In the case of a Guarantor and Secured Loan products we will follow the action path appropriate to these loan types. (See: "What if a borrower does not pay?" for details).
On full recovery of the debts, repayments will be made in accordance with the risk grades at outset, with the platform taking its predetermined fee. If no recovery is made then the platform fee is not taken.
Any costs of recovery will be borne by the borrower. (See: "Are there any upfront charges?" in the Borrower FAQs, section 12 of the Terms and Conditions and the Tariff of Charges).
In the unlikely event of a full recovery, then the capital and any remaining interest will be paid to lenders after the predetermined platform fee. It is always to be understood that the credit risk/reward is for the benefit/detriment of the lender, and the platform fee is for the administrative servicing of the loans.
JustUs.co is a trading style of eMoneyHub Ltd. eMoneyHub Ltd is authorised and regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority.
All monies are held on trust for Lenders and Borrowers in a Protected Barclays Bank PLC Client Call Account.
If you have money on account, that has not been lent, you can request this to be credited to your nominated account within 24 hours.
In the unlikely event that JustUs.co ceases to trade, all loan agreements are still payable and due to the Protected Client Call Account. In addition to this we have the added security of the Rainy Day Pot. This fund was created not only to provide additional security to the lenders to cover missed loan repayments, but to provide a ring-fenced resource for the collection and distribution of loan repayments to lenders in the event that JustUs ceases to exist.
Loan based crowdfunding (peer to peer) is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Please bear this in mind when deciding to lend on the platform.
Withdrawal of funds is via the secondary marketplace.
To release funds for withdrawal, individual micro-loans must be liquidated via the secondary market. Micro-loans held in a Standard Account or Innovative Finance ISA are available to be sold subject to certain conditions. Loans with 1 month or less remaining, new loans of less than 1 month in age, loans in arrears, being maintained by a guarantor or via the provision fund are ineligible for sale.
JustUs will do everything they can to support any sale however the secondary market is governed by the appetite of other lenders towards your Micro-Loans. There is no guarantee that your request can be met.
It is important that you consider any investment carefully before commitment.
Once a micro-loan is liquidated the funds become available for withdrawal.
Withdrawals are subject to a minimum amount of £10.00 per transaction. Where your account has a balance of <£10.00 you will need to 'top it up' to support the requested withdrawal or wait until the account balance is >£10.00.
JustUs pays all returns without any tax deducted. It is your responsibility to declare all investment earnings to HMRC where appropriate. To support this, we will provide you with an annual tax statement at year end. If you require further supporting information this can be requested via the portal.
Once the JustUs Innovative Finance ISA (IFSA) is available there will be alternatives available to you with regards to taxation.
If you require further information with regard to taxation, please review the information here or alternatively you can review the HMRC Peer to Peer Guidance Notes here
All lenders can benefit from a Standard Lender account as well as a JustUs ISA account. The ISA account is subject to additional terms and conditions which are available here
When you open your JustUs IFISA you may transfer funds from an existing ISA with another provider. The transfer form is available for download from here. Upon receipt of a fully completed and signed transfer document we will arrange for the funds to be transferred to us from your existing ISA provider. This transfer will be completed in accordance with your instructions and the ISA Regulations.The transfer process will begin on the date indicated on the signed transfer form unless you specify a date for the transaction to be completed. We will liaise with your existing ISA provider within 5 working days of receipt of your request.
The minimum transfer amount is £1,000.
If you already used your full annual ISA allowance (either through Cash ISA saving or through Stocks & Shares ISA investing) You will not have any allowance left over to invest in a Innovative Finance ISA. In these circumstances you will have to wait until the next tax year.
The simple answer is "Anyone over the age of 18", however, at JustUs we firmly believe in responsible investing and as such, we aim to make sure that all of our lenders are aware of the risks when investing in peer-to-peer lending. It is important that our lenders are not overstretching themselves when investing, so in line with the FCA guidelines published in June 2019, we may impose restrictions on the amounts that can be lent.
All lenders are required to clasify themselves as one of 3 investor types: Restricted, Sophisticated and High Net-worth.
When a lender joins the platform, they are required to undertake a Lender Classification as part of the onboarding process. As part of this classification, the lender will be required to confirm their status, and acknowledge their understanding of the
Lenders are considered as Restricted Investors where they have no existing, or historic investment in the P2P sector, or where they have invested, or plan to invest less than 10% of their net assets in high-risk investmnents.
All this means is that you are aware that your investment is restricted to a maximum of 10% of the value of your net assets (excluding mortgaged property and your main residence), into financial products that cannot be sold or transferred easily, and that you understand as a restricted investor you will be exposed to promotions for investment where there is a risk of losing all the money you invest.
A 'Sophisticated Investor' is someone who:
- has worked in private equity or in the provision of finance for small and medium enterprises; or
- has been the director of a company with an annual turnover of at least £1million; or
- has made 2 or more investments in an unlisted company; or
- has been a member of a network or syndictae of business angels for more than six months.
A High Net-worth Investor is someone with a net income of more than £100,000 or an investor with net liquid assets in excess of £250,000 (excluding a main residence and pension).