Pheabs is an online loans connection service, which matches individuals looking for short term loans with the company most likely to approve them and offer the most competitive rates.
The company was founded by Daniel Tannenbaum who has worked in the financial space for almost 10 years in the UK, but Pheabs target audience is in the US, where lending is very restricted to visiting your bank branch or going to a high street store.
“The US market has become increasingly open in the last few years when it comes to lending and borrowing, but there is little innovation online.”
“In the UK, the competition for short term loans or payday loans as a provider or marketer is fierce and heavily regulated too – so I have been able to use these learnings and transfer them to the US market.”
Pheabs allows customers to apply for up to $35,000 and individuals are matched according to 8,000 data points including their income, credit status, affordability and location, which is key.
“The matching process is very data-driven and we are using multiple APIs between the time the customer hits ‘go’ and gets a provisional loan offer.”
“The product took over a year to develop and for us, the final result was always key. For more than 90% of people that apply for any type of loan or mortgage, they are often rejected, and then they go to the next provider. We wanted to really filter the requirements for both the customer and the lender and ultimately when they complete the online form, they should genuinely get a loan decision that is viable and right for them.”
Pheabs’s value proposition is open to customers of all credit histories and backgrounds. When given a loan decision, those with poor or bad credit backgrounds may be steered towards products that require security, additional collateral or slightly higher rates to overcome the added risk of default. With over 100 lenders on the panel, this includes well-known American banks, credit card providers and alternatives to payday loans.
Micro lending is legal in the United States, but only at the state level, hence it is offered to customers in 37 states including Texas and California, but banned in 13, including Massachuttes and New York.
“Our plans are to really refine this data process and loan decision engine for our customers. We want to continue to get the data and learn from this to provide better matches and results every time. Eventually, we want to get to the point where it does this automatically via machine learning.”
“In addition, our goal is continue to on-board new lending partners and where possible get exclusive deals so customers can access more competitive rates if they applied through Pheabs compared to anywhere else.”