Because you are just never sure if there is a better lending rate out there.
South Africa-based Ratescanner is a platform that offers a listing of banks and registered financial service providers, that gives users an avenue to view lenders, compare rates and fees before they settle on who to borrow from.
Users receive an instant quote as soon as all the details required by the tool is provided. Part of the requirement is the user’s South African national identification card number and other personal identification details, plus the terms of the loan desired. The platform then directs users to prospective lenders, where users get to choose and finalise the loan process.
The product is only functional in South Africa for now though, Sibonelo Nkosi, CEO Ratescanner tells TechCabal that they are planning for regional expansion after the product had been fully operational in South Africa.
“We are planning to expand sometime next year. We are looking for the West and East African market after our execution in the Southern African market.”, Sibonelo says.
Sibonelo told to TechCabal that the idea to begin Ratescanner stemmed from his time helping friends to get loans.
Ratescanner is an independent platform and is not contracted by any financial institution. The platform currently lists loan deals from a bank and three micro-finance lender, but talks are currently ongoing with other financial institutions.
“We are in talks with 2 banks in South Africa which are interested in solving the loan issue in the country. Micro lenders were always there when we started the project where we used our platform to generate Pre-approved loan applications to them for the past 3 months, and since then we managed the traffic of more than 30,000 loan applications that we assessed physically then placing them to lenders.”
Loans obtained can be repaid within a time frame of six months to five years depending on the loan applied for.
Ratescanner is currently being bootstrapped. Sibonelo told TechCabal that the business started with R15,000 in funding. Sibonelo is working with a team of three; Njabulo Makatini, co-founder and head of business development; Kabelo Twala, programmer on web development and design and Tshepang Kobo, programmer on security.
