Instalment loans stand out more so than anything by the high volume of competing brands. There are collectively now around 40 loan options available to UK residents in each sub-niche. The boom in supply ramped up significantly in early 2015 when price capping pushed many payday firms on to this side. We’d personally assign instalment lenders as any company that offers an online loan between the period of 2 and 11 months. The most popular micro-niches for instalments are 3 month loans and 6 month loans. There is often a heavy cross-over with firms offering each of these options. We’ll however be comparing each niches individually, starting with the smaller option here today.

The history of 3 month loan products is tied to QuickQuid who have offered a 3rd monthly pay option for a long time now. WizzCash appears to have been one of the first specialised firms on this period. They launched in 2012. Historically, payday lenders would just offer rollover extensions. Rollovers do have a bad rep and the FCA has enforced a ruling that limits the number of rollovers to just 2. Quantity-wise, there are more brands offering 3 months, but this niche isn’t quite as competitive, since lenders like Lending Stream and Pounds to Pocket compete for 6. QuickQuid’s site has the most visibility in this sector, whilst Satsuma is considered as the largest instalment specialised provider.

About: Niche

One of the major problems with payday products is that any money borrowed + interest will need to be repaid fully on the next pay date. This could be a sizeable debt of several hundred pounds and so this can be tricky to pay off over such a short period, especially if the borrower is taking out other loans or racking up a large credit card debt. It is understandable that some people do run into issues and end up missing payments and in some cases losing the account to debt collectors. With a 3 month loan you are at least eradicating that requirement to pay a lump sum in one go.

It’s not only the case that the balance is spread out, but you’ll also be paying less interest since the rate is taken from a reducing balance. Given the choice of course, if a lender does offer a wider range of terms then it may make sense to spread the repayments out even further for greater affordability. Do remember that early settlements are widely available that you should be able to do quickly via your account login. If you were to borrow £300 over 90 days then in general the total charge would typically float around £150. Good competitive value would be seen by those charging closer to £100 (or less) and there are several companies offering such deals.