The fastest way to get a personal loan in Hong Kong

What is a personal loan?

A personal loan is money that is borrowed for personal use for purposes such as paying off a credit card debt, buying home gadgets, home, or kitchen renovation, embarking on a special vacation, education, medical or wedding expenditure, or emergencies. Personal loans are also called consumer loans and are usually not backed by a collateral (e.g., a house, car). When an application for a personal loan goes to a lender, they usually begin their assessment by determining your credit score in order to understand whether you are eligible for the personal loan. Your credit score will also impact what interest rate should be placed on the loan. Once the loan has been approved by the lender, the borrower is expected to repay this over an agreed time. Repayments for personal loans usually involves making both principal and interest payments monthly. Personal loans offer individuals a way to secure money to pay for urgent needs or take advantage of time sensitive opportunities. Personal loans also enable larger sized purchases whilst making repayments at your own pace.

How a personal loan works

Banks, money lenders and other regulated finance companies in Hong Kong can lend you amounts ranging from $3,000 to $1,000,000. Once you have signed the loan agreement, you are agreeing to pay back the loan amount, plus the agreed interest rate. Repayments for personal loans are made on a regular basis and over a fixed period of time. The longest loan tenure for a personal loan in Hong Kong is usually up to six years. Loan repayments are set such that you can slowly pay back the amount you borrowed, plus the interest.

The requirements of a personal loan

Before securing a personal loan in Hong Kong, an application form will need to be filled out by you. Most banks and financial institutions list a number of requirements when they assess the eligibility of an individual applying for a personal loan. To get the best loan package, there are few must-dos before filling out a personal loan application.

Step one: Compare your options

Weigh your options by determining the loan type that best caters for your needs. There are a variety of personal loans on the credit market today, and the one that you finally settle for is dependent on your financial situation and goals. Let’s examine some of the common personal loans that may be offered to you in Hong Kong.

• Secured Loans

In Hong Kong, secured loans require the presence of a guarantor or collateral. The guarantor will be responsible for paying back the loan should you default (i.e. fail to make repayments on the loan). If you present a house, car, land, a piece of machinery or any form of collateral, then the institution will take possession of the collateral until you fully service the loan deal. A commonly used term for a secured loan for a house or apartment is called a mortgage.

• Unsecured Loans

Most personal loans in Hong Kong are of the unsecured loans designation. For these types of personal loans, you do not need to present collateral or a guarantor. However, since these personal loans are unsecured, they often come with a set of requirements. You may be asked to present proof that you are financially stable and can repay the loan in order for your loan application to be approved. This is done to ensure that you can make timely repayments on the loan.

• Unsecured Tax Loans

Tax loans in Hong Kong are seasonal by nature, and reflect Hong Kong’s tax seasonality. For an individual that do not wish to unwind investments or have not saved sufficient to pay taxes in a timely manner, an unsecured tax loan can be advantageous. Similar to the ‘regular’ unsecured loan you and the lender agree on a repayment period to pay back the borrowed amount, plus the accrued interest.

• Personal Lines of Credit / Revolving Loan

You can also have an account through which you can borrow funds in fixed amounts without the need to repeatedly apply for personal loans. This account is referred to as a personal line of credit. It can be likened to a credit card; however, a personal line of credit allows the borrower to obtain cash instead of credit. A line of credit is beneficial when making expenses such as hiring the services of a contractor for long-term ongoing tasks like home renovations. There is no set repayment period of a personal line of credit.

• Auto Loans

These are loans designed for the procurement of a vehicle. This type of car loans provides funds for individuals for the purchase of a car with an interest rate calculated and set on the funds. The interest rate could be on a floating or fixed basis. The interest rates on the floating interest rate depend on the base rate which varies across credit providers.

Step two: Access your eligibility criteria

Make sure you meet the requirements to receive a personal loan offer. This will save you a lot of time, as you otherwise might waste time considering a consumer loan that you are not eligible for. The basic eligibility criteria that need to be satisfied vary from lender to lender, and there are some common terminologies to consider when applying. These include:

Credit score: Lenders in Hong Kong rely on consumer credit report companies, such as TransUnion, gather an individual’s credit score. On top of this to this many lenders and banks apply additional credit scoring analysis. Different lenders are better at assessing credit risk in certain categories, and while some are experts analysing individuals with a low credit score, others are better at providing the best possible financing for individual with a strong credit score.

In Hong Kong, credit worthiness score is generally scored from 4,000 (AA) to 1,000 (JJ). Scores below 1,000 are generally considered too low to qualify for a consumer loan.

Employment: most lenders will see employment as an important factor or requirement when considering a personal loan application. While it is not a requirement for all lenders to have a permanent employment, being able to demonstrate a repayment ability is. Some lenders may expect you to have alternative sources of income like retirement benefits or investments in addition to being employed or unemployed.

Income: to successfully apply for a personal loan, you may be required to earn a minimum amount of monthly income. It is commonplace for lenders to demand that you earn an income of at least $10,000, and to show a proof of this. However, some lenders may be fine to approve a loan without income proof.

Residency: most financial institutions grant loans to Hong Kong permanent residents, residents with valid passport.

Age: you are expected to be at least 18 years old to apply for a personal loan in Hong Kong.

Step three: Finish the application process

The application procedure for a personal loan varies across finance providers. Many banks and companies granting personal loans provide online-based applications in addition to applying at their branch office. Online personal loan applications can help you save a ton of time and hassle. For most banks and financial institutions, applying for an online personal loan is a simple process that entails uploading the required documents using your mobile phone or computer at home.

Usually, you’ll be required to tender a variety of documents and personal data to the lending institution, before or during the application process. The documents typically consist of:

Government-issued identification: the applicant needs to provide a Hong Kong ID Card or Hong Kong ID Card coupled with passport if you are a non-permanent Hong Kong resident.

Proof of income: In some cases, you may be asked to tender payslips or bank account statements of one or a few months by some bank or lending institution. If you are in the self-employed category, lenders may demand tax returns from the last two year of the most recent one-year statement for both current and savings accounts.

Proof of residence: You need to prove that you are a resident of Hong Kong by providing a recent utility, bank other financial institution statement that confirms your residence. Once all your residential information has been confirmed, the application process will be a breeze. Personal loan applications that are done over the phone or at a branch may take a while longer than those that are done online.

Applying with Lendela

When you apply for a personal loan with Lendela, your application gets sent to several banks and lenders simultaneously. They get back quickly with their best loan offer for you to pick. The online personal loan application takes only a couple of minutes to complete (to speed it up, have all your information ready) but you can also apply by calling our customer service, and one of our skilled advisors will help you through the whole process.

Step four: Wait for a message of approval

Your online personal loan application will be acknowledged electronically, and you’ll be notified if you have been pre-approved in a couple of minutes. No matter the lending style of the financial institution, the pre-approval and full approval phases are the two stages you should expect to hurdle past when applying for a loan.

• Waiting for offer stage

Once you have submitted your personal details to a lender / bank or a loan broker like Lendela, these institutions will start assessing whether they can provide you with a loan. When applying via Lendela, you can expect all lenders to have come back to you with an individualised personal loan offer for your approval, within a day.

In the case of Lendela, we connect with multiple banks and lenders, enabling you to review a number of personal loan offers at the same time. In other words, you can sit back and focus on other things, while Lendela is searching for personal loan offers for you. When new personal loan offers are available and when the complete search has been finalised, Lendela will get back to you.

During this phase lenders are likely to submit your personal information for a credit check, to assess your credit score.

• Selecting offer

In the case of a bank / lender you will need to select or refuse their offer. If applying with Lendela, you will be able to compare offers from different financial institutions on our webpage, and select the one most suitable for your needs.

• Complementary information / Full underwriting

Once an offer has been selected, you are no longer eligible to select other personal loan offers on the Lendela platform. You are requested to provide some additional information to support your personal loan application ahead of the lender’s full underwriting of the loan. This could include.

1. Proof of identity

2. Proof or residence

3. Proof of income

Step five: Disbursement of the loan funds

Lenders can fund your loan through a variety of means. For example, when you obtain a car loan, the lender may opt to pay the car dealer directly. This is usually the same case with loans taken for debt consolidation, where they send the money to your creditor directly. When you apply for an unsecured personal loan plan, the lender forwards the funds to your designated bank account. This process of disbursement usually takes a few business days.

Step six: Know all the repayment terms

Most lenders fix repayment terms to be made on a monthly basis. Repayments can be made online, via direct payments from your set bank account. It can also be done via third-party money transfer providers, to the account of a designated debt collector or via check. It is important to ensure what applies if you wish to service your loan faster than the agreed terms. Sometimes the lender applies an early settlement fee for customers that choose this option.

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Who offers a personal loan?

Options available to a borrower for obtaining personal loans include:

Banks

A handful of banks and financial institutions provide personal loans. These include HSBC, Standard Chartered, Hang Seng Bank, Citi, DBS and Bank of China and they require a decent credit score to qualify from any of their loan packages. If you are an existing customer, you may be eligible for benefits such as applying without the need to visit a branch or qualify for a heftier loan amount. In addition, some banks generate credit scores for free.

Virtual Banks

New licenses for virtual banks have been issued in Hong Kong. Their scope will be equivalent to that of traditional banks, but without the need for a physical branch presence. Virtual Banks like Livi VB, SC Digital Solutions and Zhong An Virtual Finance and WeLab have the capabilities to extend personal loans, and as their scope and breadth of their operations unfolds some or all of these are likely to offer attractive products for their customers.

Money Lenders

These are credit institutions that supports its customers with personal loans, revolving credit, credit card and sometimes auto and tax loans. Money lenders have a strong track record of analysing consumer creditworthiness and provide competitive loan offers. In some instances money lenders can be more flexible on some of the metrics when assessing an individual’s creditworthiness and effectively step in where some banks may would have declined the same application.

Online-based Money Lenders

These lenders provide a very swift and convenient way to find and compare personal loans. Most online personal loan lenders give flat-rate quotations and approval delay is usually two working days. There is stiff competition in the personal loans’ market nowadays, meaning that web-based lenders work extra hard to set themselves apart from conventional lenders either by developing lending guidelines that transcend the traditional credit-determination methods or with added benefits like flexible disbursement, repayments, zero fees or methods of lowering interest rates.

Comparison Platforms (like Lendela)

These are websites that allow individuals to compare and select the best personal loan offers by connecting borrowers to banks and lenders.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Globally Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has grown a lot. P2P lending is a personal loan financing approach that allows individuals to lend and borrow funds via a web-based platform without an intermediate registered financial institution. Peer-to-peer lending is advantageous as it claims to cut out the middleman from the lending system. P2P lending is also known as crowd-lending or social lending. In Hong Kong, the regulatory framework surrounding P2P lending is still not settled

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10 benefits of a personal loan

1. There are no restrictions on how you use the funds

This is perhaps one of the biggest advantages when applying for a personal loan. The money can be utilised at your discretion. So whether it’s a for a wedding, tuition fee, purchase of machinery, emergency medical treatment or vacationing, you decide how you want to use your funds.

2. No collateral is demanded

For unsecured loans, the issuer does not require any security in the form of collateral, prior to the disbursement of the funds. By contrast, for secured loans you would pledge your house, vehicle or land as collateral to the lender or financial institution. Failing to repay your secured loan could result in the financial institution seizing your collateral.

3. Easy documentation

Completion of the paperwork for a personal loan is pretty easy. In Hong Kong, you’d tender only proof of identity, residential address, and income in the typical personal loan application. If you’re applying for a personal loan online or via a web-based platform, all you need to do is upload a picture of each document, and complete the application.

4. Monthly repayments reduce financial burden

Personal loans are designed so that you can make repayments in monthly instalments. This involves repaying a portion of the principal amount and the interest amount in simple portions. The lender does not expect you to pay off a large chunk of the loan in one go. Rather, the lender typically prefers you to predictably pay each instalment as per the agreed terms.

5. It’s more cost effective than credit card loans

It is commonplace to find people using credit cards. Obtaining a credit card loan deal is quick and easy but one drawback to its how expensive it can become. Failing to repay the credit card in full each month, interest rates on credit cards in Hong Kong can be well above 30%, excluding late fees and other administrative fees while personal loan offers can often go for as low as 2% per annum.

6. Fast processing

Most personal loans in Hong Kong take less than two days to process. If the loan issuer has received your completed application and all the supporting documents, then a lending decision can be taken almost instantly. Your credit score and credit history would be further evaluated when your personal loan application is being reviewed. In addition to receiving your application at a branch office, some personal loan lenders may give you the opportunity of applying online via their website.

7. Quick disbursement

Personal loans come with quick turnaround time. An approved loan fund can be disbursed in less than a day or two. Existing customers of a lending institution stand a better chance of receiving the money faster. If your personal loan application is completed during the weekend or public holiday; the lender might not be in operation at the time of the submission. The application will then be processed the next business day. The disbursal of funds is dependent on full approval of the personal loan application as mentioned earlier.

8. Tenure flexibility

The borrower is often given a range of one to six years to repay the loan; and can be further extended by some lenders. Tenure depends on the loan principal and interest rate. Make an effort to discuss tenure options with the lender so that a repayment plan that works for both parties is agreed.

9. Availability of top-up options

Some lenders allow you to for a top-up on an existing loan deal. Let’s say you have a loan of $30,000 but need an additional $10,000. In such a scenario, you can request for a loan extension of $10,000 on the previously approved loan whilst maintaining the same interest rate. With this, you are not required to re-apply for a new loan; saving you a significant amount of time.

10. Availability of various loan types

A personal loan is not necessarily a standardised items with a pre-set framework. In truth, there are a plethora of personal loan deals available. There are some plans that are designed for certain industry professionals such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, and investors. Similarly government employees, housewives and students may also enjoy loan plans that charge very low-interest rates due to their specific characteristics.

At Lendela, we believe in finding innovative ways to simplify your personal loan application process by leveraging digital technology. We are brimming with confidence on the back of over 15 years of experience in helping connect consumers with the best credit providers in the Scandinavian region, channeling more than one million customers to over 30 well-established banks and lenders in the region, such as Santander, SEB & Swedbank.

We have mediated over 600,000 loan applications in South America, thanks in no small part to our partnerships with more than 30 established credit partners including Banco Pan, BV, Safra, Banco Maxima, Banco CBSS and Banco Ibi. We are also market leaders in Brazil and have been lauded for enabling customers to enjoy the best personal loans to fulfil their dreams.

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