Company

1. How does the Finance Center benefit my company?

The Finance Center offers several benefits to your company, including revenue-generating opportunities.

1. Help your customers grow their business by saving them time and money in acquiring financing. Growing customers translate into increased sales for your company.
2. The Finance Center earns revenue from fees to your customer (the borrower) as well as lenders. Your company earns a percentage of this revenue.
3. By helping your customers grow their business, your company is very likely to earn their long-term loyalty.

2. What is required from my company to make the Finance Center successful for my company and my customers?

To make the Finance Center successful, your company must simply promote the Finance Center to your customers via your website and other marketing materials. Your company's responsibility is to get your customers to click from your site to the Finance Center. Of course, Credentrust will work with your company to hone the marketing message. Credentrust is responsible for managing all aspects of the Finance Center, including customer support and billing.
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3. Who is responsible for providing support to our customers during the process?

Credentrust is responsible for providing support to your customers, including both technical support and general support to assist them with the overall loan process.
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4. My customers are not Internet-savvy. Will they able to use the Finance Center?

Of course. We have extensively tested the Finance Center to ensure that it is easy to use for customers. In the past 3 years, the Finance Center has processed over $1 billion in loans for customers of all types. Our support team is also available via phone and email to help customers at each step.
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5. How does the Finance Center integrate with Credentrust Customer Application Management (CAM)?

Credentrust CAM and the Finance Center use the same vault. When they create a loan application, many of the fields are automatically pre-populated with fields from the credit application. Also, lenders know they are a customer of your company, which validates for the lender that this is a valid borrower.

Companies can view reports on the Finance Center activity and status of their customers directly from the Credentrust CAM system. And because Credentrust shares revenue from the Finance Center with your company, the Finance Center can quickly become a profit center and more than pay for the cost of Credentrust CAM.
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Borrowers (your customers)

6. How does the Finance Center benefit my customers?

The Finance Center saves your customers both time and money by connecting them with over 225 lenders for business loans, equipment leases and commercial real estate loans from $500 to $50 million. Customers can also invite their existing lenders into their Vault.

Compared to the typical loan process, the Finance Center can save your customers many hours by connecting them with many lenders from a single application. Customers may also take advantage of a loan package feature which enables them to prepare a comprehensive loan package of documents and information on their company and the particular loan. This package is often required by lenders during the due diligence process.

While time is money, customers save money too. Because each loan meets the criteria of an average of 10 lenders (based on customer location, loan type and loan amount) your customer benefits from competition among lenders to offer the best available rates and terms that meet their needs. The online loan application and loan package also save your customer money on copying, faxing and overnighting services.
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7. How will my customers know whether you have lenders interested in their loan before they complete the application?

The Finance Center offers a powerful Preview Lenders feature where the customer can enter their state, the type of loan and the amount of the loan. The Finance Center will then determine which lenders meet those criteria and will display the list to the customer. This process is completely anonymous and does not require customers to pay any fees or even register first.
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8. Is my customers' data secure? Who has access to it?

Just as with Credentrust CAM data, the security of your customers' data is of the utmost importance to Credentrust. Your customer's data is available only to the appropriate parties, including:

1. Your customer
2. Credentrust Support personnel (not all Credentrust employees)
3. Designated employees at your company
4. Authorized Finance Center lenders who specifically meet the criteria for that loan
5. Lenders invited by the customer

All Finance Center lenders have been specifically approved by Credentrust and have agreed to respect the privacy and security of the customer. For more information on Finance Center Security, please refer to the CAM Security page.

Credentrust also strictly abides by our Privacy Policy. Only those appropriate and necessary individuals approved by Credentrust or the customer are granted access to their information. For more information, please refer to the Credentrust Privacy Policy.
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9. What types of loans does the Finance Center offer?

The Finance Center offers all types of loans to meet the varied needs of your customers, including business loans, commercial real estate loans and equipment leases from $500 to $50 million. We have lenders that cover all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada. The complete list of loan types offered by the Finance Center is available on the Loan Types page.
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10. How is my customers' data being used, i.e., is their privacy protected?

At Credentrust, we take the privacy of our customers very seriously. Customer data is used solely for the purpose for which the customer has expressed interest, i.e., assisting them in arranging financing for their growing business. While Credentrust will likely offer additional financial services in the future, such as insurance, the customers' information will not be sold to third parties without their prior expressed consent.

We maintain and abide by our Privacy Policy which can be viewed at any time by our customers. Unlike many consumer services and e-commerce site, Credentrust has NOT altered its Privacy Policy since its founding to allow for reselling of customer data.

Customers also have the option of remaining anonymous to lenders during the proposal process. When doing so, their identity and contact information is revealed only to the lender they have selected.
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How It Works

11. How does the Finance Center work?

The loan process has 8 basic steps:

1. Select Application
2. Register
3. Complete Application
4. Select Options
5. Invite Lenders
6. Review Proposals
7. Select Lender
8. Close Loan

In addition to the above steps, the Finance Center offers additional functionality, such as the option to upload files, generate a loan package, exclude Finance Center lenders and invite their own lenders. In addition, the Finance Center enables customers and lenders to correspond with each other anonymously to ask (and respond to) questions about the loan application or proposals.
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12. Will my customers be harassed by lenders?

No. Only those lenders who meet the criteria of your customers' loans will be notified of that loan and permitted to view it. All lenders must be approved by Credentrust before they are given access to the system.

In addition, customers may choose to remain anonymous throughout the proposal process until they select a lender. When doing so, lenders are not given the company name or contact information for the customer until they are selected by the customer as their preferred lender.

Before lenders are notified of a particular loan, customers have the option of excluding specific lenders which otherwise meet the criteria for that loan. This ensures that only those lenders approved by the customer may view their loan application.
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13. How can we be sure our customer will not be cheated by a Finance Center lender?

All Finance Center lenders are specifically approved by Credentrust. As a component of the agreement between the lender and Credentrust, the lender agrees not to alter the terms of their proposal if everything described in the customer's loan application is accurate. Lenders who receive complaints from customers about offering terms in bad faith will be barred from the Finance Center.
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14. How much information do the loan applications require from my customers?

The amount of information requested in a Finance Center loan application varies based on the type of loan. In general, the loan application is typically less than a standard bank application, but is still comprehensive enough to ensure that lenders have sufficient information to submit a binding proposal of loan terms.

Because some loan forms require a significant amount of information, customers are not required to enter all of the information at one time. They can very easily complete the application at their own pace by simply logging back into their vault to update the application before releasing it to lenders.
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15. How long does the process typically take?

Depending on the size of the loan, the loan process from beginning to end can take anywhere from a few days to several months. For typical loans, we suggest that customers give lenders 5-10 business days to review their loan applications and submit proposals. After that, the loan process is often driven by the customer. This includes the customer reviewing lender proposals and selecting a winning lender, and then preparing all of the documents required by the lender for due diligence.
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Cost & Revenue

16. How do you charge for the Finance Center?

Credentrust charges fees to both customers and lenders. The customer pays an initial fee (Loan Package Setup Fee) when they release their loan application to lenders, and a second fee (Lender Relationship Management Fee) when they select a proposal from a specific lender. The amounts of the two fees are based on the requested loan amount. For a list of the fees, please refer to the Fees page.

Depending on the size and type of loan, the lender may also pay a fee for the customer lead and/or when the loan closes.
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17. If our customers are not happy, can they get a refund?

Customers may request a refund of the Lender Relationship Management fee, which is the fee they pay when they select a winning lender, based on either of the following circumstances:

a. The lender fails to respond to customer attempts to contact that lender to conduct due diligence and close the loan.

b. The lender significantly alters the terms of their proposal for reasons other than material mistakes or omissions by the customer discovered during the due diligence process.

Before requesting a refund, the customer must wait at least seven business days for the lender to respond to attempts to contact him/her. Refund request must be submitted within 30 days of selecting the lender to ensure the borrower made an effort to contact the lender within a timely manner.
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18. Do lenders pay any fees?

Yes, lenders do pay fees to Credentrust. The fee paid by lenders depend on the type and size of the loan transaction. Some lenders also pay a monthly fee or fee per lead to maintain their status as an active lender. Fees paid by lenders attributable to loan applications by your customers are also shared with your company.
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19. How much revenue can we make from the Finance Center?

The amount of revenue that you can make from the Finance Center is solely dependent upon how many qualified customers you refer to the Finance Center, and the size and types of loans they request. Loan applications can easily generate several hundred dollars or more in fees from customers, yet still save your customers considerable time and money.