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A few days ago I got a call from company asking me if I have any outstanding debts and saying they can help me with my debts. Well, I don't have any debts; though I use 3 credit cards, I always pay them out in full.

Then he asked me if I am looking for any personal loan? In fact I am looking to get a loan, so I told him yes. He said he can give me a loan. I asked for £25,000 for 3 years.

He then transferred my call to some other department and the other guy told me that he will make an application for me and check if I am eligible for the loan. He started asking me my details like address, company I work for, salary and then bank details. So I told him that I don't want to disclose my bank details. And he was OK with it and told me to call back if I change my mind.

I am confused and don't know if this company is legit OR not. I mean who will give me a loan of worth £25,000 and that too just over the phone? And on top of that they contacted me to give the loan.

I could not find any wrong doing information about the company on the internet. Am I right to be concerned?

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    Asking about a particular company is pretty close to a product recommendation, which is off topic here. But your question is a good on if you re-worded it to be "what steps or checks should I do to see if a lending company is legit in the UK" Also, please tag your question, in case our UK community members have some specific advice for you.
    – MrChrister
    Jun 27, 2014 at 15:21
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    Somebody calling to offer you a loan and you still need to ask. Run away as fast as possible with your tail between you legs(pun intended). I get this calls and sms every other day and I simply tell them to piss off in no uncertain terms. It is no scam, they intend to lend you money. But they will have certain T&Cs which will make you kick yourself later on.
    – DumbCoder
    Jun 27, 2014 at 15:31
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    The biggest red flag is not determining if big honest loan company is legitimate, it is knowing that this random caller is actually from big honest loan company. Jun 27, 2014 at 15:44
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    Just going to echo @mhoran_psprep's thoughts here. Someone cold calling you to offer you a loan sounds suspicious
    – Noah
    Jun 27, 2014 at 15:52

1 Answer 1

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There are quite a few red flags one can watch out for;

  • Cold sales call, offering for quick loan. Quite a few are outright fraud. Other are like DumbCoder mentioned, hidden things in T&C.
  • Other point as mentioned by mhoran_psprep, there is typically no way of finding out if the person calling actually works for the company. Quite often they use big names and sweet talk and at sometime collect some fees in other name saying they are authorized agents etc
  • In today's internet world one typically knows the top players or can quickly find out about them.
  • See if someone can give you the details in writing, this way you should be able to atleast get the phone number and address of the company.
  • Never deal on mails and phones, see if you can meet the agent and ask him to show his company identification.

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