The short version: Lendingdesk is a free matching service, not a lender. These terms also ask you to settle any dispute with us through individual arbitration and to give up class actions and jury trials, so please read sections 21 and 22 before you carry on.
1. About these terms
This page sets out the deal between you and Lendingdesk (called "we", "us" and "our" below) for using this website. Visiting the site or sending us a request means you accept these terms, and if you'd rather not, please leave without using it. From time to time we may revise this wording, and when we do we'll post the new version here with a fresh "last updated" date. A revision takes effect from that date and won't be applied to a request you sent earlier, so a quick look now and then is a good habit.
2. What Lendingdesk actually does
Lendingdesk is a matching service that costs you nothing to use. You fill in a single personal loan request, and we send it on to lenders and other providers in our network, each of whom decides independently whether to consider it. Sending a request doesn't promise a match, a phone call or an offer, and we can't tell you in advance how it will turn out. Not every lender works in every state, and none of them is required to respond to you.
3. Who can use the service
You can use Lendingdesk if you're 18 or older (or older still, where your state sets a higher age of majority), you live in the U.S., and you're legally able to sign a contract. Lenders in our network usually want to see a steady income and a bank account held in your name, so you'll need both as well. Every request has to be your own, so please don't fill one in for anybody else.
4. What we're not
We don't lend money, and we don't decide who gets credit. We're also not a loan broker, and we don't act as an agent or representative for you or for any lender. Please don't treat anything you read here as financial, legal or tax advice either. If a lender offers you a loan, the arrangement is strictly between the two of you and follows that lender's terms, so go through its agreement carefully and put any questions to the lender before you sign.
A few lenders in our network may be owned by a Native American tribe and governed by tribal law rather than state law. With a lender like that, the agreement, the governing law and the route for resolving a dispute may differ from what a state-licensed lender would offer, and certain state protections might not reach you. The lender has to spell all of that out in its own agreement, so read it fully before choosing.
5. How we earn our keep
You'll never be charged by us. Instead, lenders and providers in our network pay us, sometimes when we send them a request and sometimes when a request turns into a loan. Those payments can affect which lender receives your request first and how offers are arranged when you see them. We don't survey the whole market, and a lender's place in our network is not an endorsement of it.
6. Permission to check your details
Sending a request gives us, along with the lenders and providers in our network, your permission to verify what you've told us and to get information about you from consumer reporting agencies and other data sources, for example to confirm your identity, income and bank account. The check we run to find a match is a soft inquiry, which leaves your credit score untouched. If you decide to continue with a lender, it may run a check of its own, and that one could be a hard inquiry. You'll find the full detail in our Credit Authorization.
7. Where your details go
When you submit a request, you're asking us to pass what's in it to lenders, other providers and the companies that help us operate, so that they can review it and get in touch with you about it. Those companies may hold on to your information and use it under their own privacy policies, whether or not you accept an offer. For what we collect, who receives it and the choices open to you, see our Privacy Policy.
8. Other things we might suggest
If no lender picks up your request, we or our partners might point you to something else that could be useful, like credit-monitoring tools or plain-English money guides. There's no requirement to look at or sign up for any of it, and anything you do choose is covered by the terms of whoever provides it.
9. Paperwork by email and online
You agree that we may send notices, disclosures and other communications to you electronically, by email or by publishing them on this site, and that doing so satisfies any legal need for them to be in writing. Checking a box or clicking a button here counts as your electronic signature. To receive these communications you'll need an internet-connected device, an up-to-date browser and an email address you can get into. You may take back this consent whenever you like by sending us an email, though we might not be able to carry on with your request afterwards. If you'd like a paper copy of any notice, just email and ask.
10. Phone calls, texts and emails
If you send a request and agree to be contacted, we, the lenders in our network and our partners may reach you about that request and related products by phone, text and email at the number and address you supplied. Those calls and texts may use automated dialing technology as well as prerecorded or artificial voice messages. Agreeing to this is never a condition of buying anything. Message and data rates may apply. To stop texts, reply STOP, or visit our Unsubscribe page whenever you like; our TCPA Disclosure covers the details.
11. Your privacy
Our Privacy Policy, which is part of these terms, explains how we gather, use, share and safeguard your personal information. If you live in California, your rights are described on our Do Not Sell or Share My Information page.
12. What you're confirming
By using the site, you tell us that:
- the details you give are accurate, complete and about you, and you'll update us if anything changes while your request is still open;
- you meet every requirement in section 3;
- the phone number and email address you enter belong to you, or you have permission to use them;
- you won't use the site to break the law or deceive anyone, and you won't interfere with it, overload it or try to break into it; and
- you won't scrape or harvest the site's content with bots or other automated tools.
13. Who owns what's on this site
Everything on this site, including the text, images, layout and design, belongs to us or to people who've licensed it to us, and copyright, trademark and similar laws protect it. You may look at pages and print them for your own personal reference. Any other copying, editing, republishing, selling or reuse needs our written permission first.
14. No promises about the site itself
We try to keep the site accurate and running, but it comes to you "as is" and "as available". As far as the law permits, we give no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including that the site will suit your purposes, stay online, be secure or be free of errors, or that a lender will reply to your request or make you an offer. We also make no promise about the terms, quality or suitability of any loan, product or service a lender or provider puts in front of you.
15. How far our liability goes
As far as the law permits, we aren't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive losses or damages connected with your use of the site, your request, or anything between you and a lender or provider, even if someone warned us such losses could happen. For any claim about the site or the service, the most we can owe you is what you paid us for the service, which is nothing. A few states don't permit some of these limits, so parts of this section may not apply where you live.
16. If your actions cause us a loss
You agree to compensate us, along with our owners, employees and partners, for any claims, losses, costs and reasonable attorneys' fees that arise because you broke these terms, gave us false information or used the site unlawfully.
17. Glitches, errors and delays
Some problems are beyond our reasonable control, such as internet or power outages, a lender's or partner's systems going down, or a typo in the details you entered, and we aren't responsible for delays or failures they cause. When we find an error on the site we'll fix it, and we may alter, suspend or withdraw any part of the site whenever we need to, without advance notice.
18. Other people's websites
Links on this site, and the offers that may appear once you've sent a request, can lead to websites operated by lenders and other businesses. Those sites are outside our control, and we're not responsible for what they say, the terms they set or how they treat your information. Whether you visit them is your call, and their own terms and privacy policies govern your visit.
19. Tell us first
If you're thinking of bringing an arbitration or other claim against us, you agree to email us first at [email protected] with your name, your contact details, a description of the problem and the outcome you're looking for. We'll look at it honestly and do our best to put things right with you. If 60 days pass after we receive your notice and it still isn't settled, either side may begin arbitration under section 21.
20. Leaving us out of disputes with lenders
Loans and other products come from lenders and providers, not from us. So, as far as the law permits, you release us from any claims, demands and damages that grow out of a disagreement between you and a lender or other provider. California residents also waive California Civil Code section 1542, which reads: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party."
21. Arbitration instead of court
This section matters, so please read it closely: under it, you and we both give up the right to have a judge or jury decide a dispute.
Any dispute, claim or controversy between you and us that arises out of or relates to these terms, the site or the service, including any question about whether this section applies or is enforceable, will be resolved through binding arbitration, one claimant at a time, instead of in court. The case goes before one arbitrator, with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) running it under the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules, which are published at adr.org. This section is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. Hearings will be held in California, or by phone or video if you prefer. Apart from what you'd have paid to file a claim in court, we'll cover the AAA's filing, administration and arbitrator fees, unless the arbitrator decides your claim was made in bad faith. The arbitrator may grant you any individual remedy a court could, and any court with jurisdiction may enter judgment on the award.
Either side may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead, provided it remains there. To opt out of this arbitration agreement, email us within 30 days of the first time you use the site, giving your name and saying plainly that you're opting out. Doing so leaves the rest of these terms unchanged.
22. No class action lawsuits, and no jury
Claims between you and us can only be brought individually, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, joint or representative action. The arbitrator has no power to merge different people's claims or to oversee any class or representative proceeding. Should a court decide this section can't be enforced for a particular claim, that claim goes to court rather than arbitration, and sections 21 and 22 continue to govern every other claim. You and we each also give up any right to trial by jury.
23. Copyright complaints
We take intellectual property seriously. If you think material on this site infringes a copyright you own, email [email protected] and include what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires: a description of the copyrighted work and of the material you say infringes it, where on the site that material appears, how to contact you, a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorized, a statement made under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and that you own the copyright or are authorized to act for the owner, and your physical or electronic signature.
24. For California users
California Civil Code section 1789.3 entitles users in California to the information below. There is no charge to you for using Lendingdesk. Questions or complaints about the service can be sent to us at [email protected]. You may also contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.
25. Governing law and the fine print
The laws of the State of California govern these terms, setting aside its conflict-of-law principles, while the Federal Arbitration Act governs section 21. Anything that doesn't go to arbitration will be decided in a state or federal court in California, and you and we both accept those courts' jurisdiction. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the remaining parts still apply. Our failing to enforce a term right away doesn't mean we've given up the right to enforce it later. You can't assign your rights under these terms to anyone else, but we may assign ours. The headings are only there to make the terms easier to follow and have no effect on what they mean.
26. The full agreement
These terms, along with our Privacy Policy, our TCPA Disclosure and any other document they point to, make up everything you and we have agreed about the site and the service, and they supersede anything agreed before. A loan agreement you sign with a lender is a separate contract and isn't part of these terms.
27. Questions
Questions about these terms are always welcome. Just email [email protected].