Leading dispute technology specialist, Chargebacks911, and Fi911, its revolutionary dispute management brand for financial institutions, today announce the appointment of Matt Stein as Senior Vice President of Brand Strategy. 

In his new role, Matt will focus on ensuring a unified brand and marketing strategy across the Chargebacks911 and Fi911 brands with a focus on driving increased revenue across the merchant, financial institution, and partnership landscape.

He brings a wealth of experience to the role, having spent more than two decades leading full-service marketing capabilities at a range of fintech, investment and technology-focused companies, such as Wunderman, PEAK6 Investments and Kobie Marketing.

Over this time, Matt developed a strong financial services portfolio, with previous clients including American Express, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, and First Bank of Puerto Rico. He has also helped several companies to become recognized as industry leaders in their verticals, as backed by Forrester’s Wave reports and Gartner in its Magic Quadrant reports.

On his new role, Matt commented: “I’m delighted to be joining Chargebacks911 at such a pivotal time for the business – having recently launched the Fi911 brand, and due to the boom in payment disputes and friendly fraud caused by COVID-19.

“Both brands are doing revolutionary things for the payments network, innovating in a space that is often overlooked. Through a clear and synergized branding strategy, we can further communicate the benefits that future-proofed chargeback management solutions provide.”

Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and Co-Founder of Chargebacks911 and Fi911, added: “We’re so pleased to welcome Matt to the team. He is an experienced marketeer with an impressive history in the fintech space.

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, chargebacks were costing merchants over $100bn a year – some industries have now seen their rates grow by 20-30%, placing a huge strain on their bottom line. Now, more than ever, awareness is needed around effective chargeback management.

“This is exactly why a strategist of Matt’s calibre and the investment in our brand is imperative; to empower our journey as we work to reduce the drain that chargebacks cause on time, energy and profits.”

To find out more about how Chargebacks911 and Fi911 help merchants and financial institutions mitigate and manage chargebacks, visit chargebacks911.com and fi911.com.

IRIS Software Group (IRIS), the number one software supplier to accountancy practices has today announced the launch of IRIS Elements, the next generation cloud accountancy platform. 

IRIS Elements revolutionises the way accountancy practices run their firms; freeing up their time and resources to grow their practices, deliver added-value services and produce better business outcomes for their clients. IRIS Elements will offer an evolving suite of applications designed to support all areas of accountancy as firms scale, from data capture, compliance and bookkeeping through to customer servicing and advisory services. It automates workflow across multiple applications whilst maintaining a single view of the customer, so accountants can collaborate easily with customers to drive better business outcomes.

The launch of IRIS Elements is a landmark moment not just for IRIS, but for the accountancy profession. IRIS has transformed how it develops and delivers its services to ensure accountants have the exact tools they need to face the future, in the cloud. 

Built and delivered in collaboration with hundreds of accountants, IRIS Elements redefines the way they run their practices and helps unlock business potential. Most importantly, it has been built so accountants can move to the cloud at their own pace; a critical ask from the hundreds of accountants who collaborated with IRIS in designing this cloud platform.

Jim Scott, Managing Director of Accountancy at IRIS said, “When IRIS saw the cloud software trend accelerating some time ago, we knew accounting practices could gain real benefits from it. Even before Covid-19, we could see that accountants would want to embrace cloud technology; reduce technical complexity, increase their agility, support flexible working and improve their ability to respond to changing customer demands.  

“We realised what accountants needed was not a tactical, piecemeal response to cloud but a strategic, future-ready and scalable solution. IRIS Elements is the answer to this need.”

DELIVERED TODAY

The IRIS Elements modules available at launch include: IRIS Elements AML (Anti-Money Laundering), IRIS Elements SmartTax and Senta by IRIS.

IRIS Elements AML

The decision to prioritise Anti-Money Laundering (AML) was made following customer conversations that revealed many accountants didn’t have a defined AML process. Instead relying on a series of time-consuming manual processes which often led to confusion and errors.

Lucy Vann-Patrick, Director at V Ran said, “Elements is such an easy and quick system to use...Using both ID checks and risk assessments, you can make an informed decision on the client's risk. Everything is self-explanatory and user friendly.”

IRIS Elements AML has been designed to drastically reduce time-consuming processes with efficient online data checks, providing the security accountants need to onboard new clients with confidence. The fully cloud-based solution is integrated into IRIS Practice Management and supports firms’ need to comply with the latest AML regulations while improving overall productivity.

IRIS Elements SmartTax

Accountants told IRIS that as well as compliance in the cloud, what they want right now is an instant view of their clients’ tax that enables them to adjust figures to instantly see the effects of different scenarios. IRIS Elements SmartTax delivers ‘real-time’ tax calculations from within IRIS Personal Tax to improve efficiencies and enable them to deliver true tax planning today. It is available at no extra cost for existing IRIS Personal Tax customers.

Aly Rainey, Director at Crack-A-Tax Ltd said, “I have used IRIS for many years and have always found it incredibly easy to use which is why I’ve stayed loyal for so long. It’s great to see IRIS now venturing properly into a more cloud-based system, of which IRIS Elements and SmartTax is the showcase. "

“SmartTax allows me to see the current tax status of the client I’m working on in real time, and it’s making a really positive difference to the preparation of my client tax returns as I no longer have to keep running the tax computation! I look forward to seeing Elements and SmartTax becoming part of the everyday provision.”

Augmenting the power of the cloud within the desktop, IRIS Elements SmartTax makes tax processing much more efficient so accountants can spend time focusing on what matters – tax planning, advising on investment and succession planning for clients, as well as marketing to and acquiring new clients for the firm.

Senta by IRIS

IRIS’ customers within the design community including Golding Accounting, Pink Pig Financials and My Cloud 9 Accounting told IRIS the Covid pandemic changed the way accountancy practices are run and accelerated the need to manage firms in the cloud. In response to this, as part of its “build, buy, partner” strategy, IRIS acquired Senta, the award-winning cloud native SaaS Practice Management solution, to accelerate its ambitions in the cloud practice management area for IRIS Elements.

Senta by IRIS provides many of the core features found within the desktop IRIS Practice Management and is a single source of truth for client data that is available instantly in the cloud. It further simplifies accountants’ workload with automated & flexible workflows that are easily configured to fit any accountancy firm; time chasing for information is minimised thanks to automated reminders for staff and clients, making sure nothing is forgotten.

Senta by IRIS and IRIS Elements AML are already integrated, enabling basic ID checks on clients from within Senta and by the end of August this year we will have full data integration between Senta and the IRIS Elements platform.

Jonathan Priestley, Senior Product Director said, “IRIS Elements exists to support, inspire and empower all accountants. Our future-ready cloud accountancy platform gives practices the capabilities they need to embrace new ways of working. In-built automation and streamlining creates productivity, efficiency and speed gains for every type of accountant. We are providing accountants with extra time to focus, the capacity to grow, and the capability to deliver better business outcomes.”

THE FUTURE OF ELEMENTS

The IRIS Elements platform will be expanded in the coming months with new modules driven by the requirements of IRIS’ customer community. These include IRIS Elements Advisory Plus and  IRIS Elements Essentials.

IRIS Elements Advisory Plus

IRIS Elements Advisory Plus builds upon the existing five-year reports within IRIS Accounts Production, allowing access to this powerful advisory-enabling information from anywhere.  The report has been evolved within the IRIS Elements platform and is presented as a graphical dashboard of clients’ business information. This puts the critical information accountants need at their fingertips, so that they can start analysing trends and advising their clients on how to improve business outcomes.,

IRIS Elements Essentials

Our analysis shows that over the last 12 months, an increasing number of accountants have chosen to start new firms. Doing this under normal circumstances is hard enough, let alone in the middle of a pandemic. To support these accountants, IRIS will be launching a suite of best-in-cloud solutions covering practice management and productivity, tax preparation & filing, and payroll all available via the IRIS Elements platform; enabling accountants to run their whole practice from a single, central console.

Subscribers will have access to the other IRIS Elements modules as they continue to expand rapidly while getting the highest efficiency gains by using the latest cloud technology.

Next generation banking-as-a-service platform, HUBUC, has partnered with the hyper-scale Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and risk detection provider ComplyAdvantage to integrate its innovative compliance and security screening technology.

HUBUC is an embedded financial services provider that enables businesses to integrate multiple payment capabilities from a single platform. A key feature of HUBUC’s offering is managing all regulatory compliance on behalf of its customers - saving them the investment in time, implementation and resourcing. The long-term savings are significant as, according to the Ponemon Institute¹, the cost to a business of not meeting compliance standards (including fines settlements, business disruption, productivity loss, and revenue loss) is around 2.71 times higher than the cost of compliance.

The partnership will enable businesses using HUBUC’s platform to seamlessly benefit from ComplyAdvantage’s innovative global sanctions screening technology. This uses real-time proprietary AML data and sophisticated, configurable matching technology to track companies or entities and ensure businesses are measuring risk against the latest available information and are therefore protected. 

As HUBUC has a wide international footprint facilitating payments across 54 territories, the partnership will help bolster its clients’ international compliance processes - with real-time access to the latest information, watch lists and regulation.

Justine Gilder, Head of Compliance, HUBUC commented: “Offering complete compliance management for our business customers is one of the unique, core and most in-demand features on our platform, so we needed a partner that is at the top of its game. Our customers come to us for a suite of payment capabilities that they can use on an international scale, so it’s important to both us and them that we provide it in the most safe and secure way. ComplyAdvantage is one of only a small number of proprietary global AML data providers in the world, making it the perfect fit for HUBUC and our customers.”

“HUBUC is a great example of a fintech that’s enabling companies to accelerate new embedded finance services to market using their powerful API technology and unified platform,” said Charles Delingpole founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage. “Which is why we are excited to be working with their team by providing access to our award-winning hyper-scale AML and risk detection solutions.  Together we can reduce the threat of financial crimes so businesses can transact with trust and grow with confidence."

Banking Circle, the payments specialist, has reported a significant uplift in payments flow and clients a year after it launched its Banking Licence.

At the end of February 2020, Banking Circle received its Banking Licence from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) in Luxembourg, enabling it to give financial institutions direct access to real-time payments regardless of borders or size. It also launched its new headquarters in Luxembourg in a ceremony attended by Mr Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Minister of Finance.

Twelve months on, the company is reporting significant growth as it continues to support the cross border flows of Payments businesses and Banks, while they focus on delivering solutions to their end customers. Key achievements and targets include:
 

• Doubled client base since acquiring Banking Licence to over 150+ financial institutions including Stripe, Alibaba and Paysafe
• Processed 6% of Europe’s B2C e-commerce flow in 2020
• Processed EUR 155bn of payments volume in 2020
• Targeting EUR 250 billion run-rate annual payment volumes and 100 million annual bank transfers by end of 2021

“At the heart of the Banking Circle mission is the driving focus that cross border payments take too long and cost too much”, explained Anders la Cour, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder. “The key is to reduce the number of stages of any transaction, which is why we are focused on building one super correspondent banking network. We are doing ‘the heavy lifting’ for our clients, investing in the difficult job of integrating a vast network of local clearing and payments schemes.”

The Banking Circle strategic roadmap is driven by the goal to provide best in class payment rails through a combination of direct clearing with central banks and a strong correspondent banking network. Today, Banking Circle delivers access to 12 local clearing schemes through a combination of direct clearing and partner banks, enabling cross border payments in 25 currencies.  It has also built partnerships with banks globally, enabling the payout capability clients need in geographies and currencies where it does not currently offer local collection.

“Building on the considerable success achieved in the last 12 months, we have ambitious targets for the future which are possible because of the unique combination of in-house experts, a strong network and our majority shareholder, EQT, which supports the long-term vision with the funding necessary”, continued Anders la Cour.

“The end game for Banking Circle is to see the time and cost of cross border payments reduce significantly. Through the investment we are making in the payment rails across all key geographies and jurisdictions we are providing direct access to clearing in multiple countries unconstrained by the same legacy issues of correspondent banks. And, in this current environment that makes us a compelling solution for Banks, Payments businesses and Corporates.”

Acquired by the EQT VIII fund (“EQT VIII”) and EQT Ventures fund (“EQT Ventures”) (jointly “EQT”), together with company founders and other co-investors in September 2018, Banking Circle has been able to accelerate its growth in current and new geographies, with access to both operational and financial resources to drive innovation and investments in technology development and talent acquisition. It has also leveraged the entire EQT platform, including deep TMT sector expertise, local presence and EQT’s global network of Industrial Advisors.

Exactpro, a leading software testing provider for mission-critical financial market infrastructures, today announces it has been chosen by LedgerEdge, the next-generation ecosystem for corporate bond trading, to deliver functional testing and ensure the resilience of LedgerEdge’s global corporate bond trading platform powered by distributed ledger technology.

LedgerEdge aims to revolutionise the $41 trillion corporate bond market by devising a new trading ecosystem, harnessing R3’s Corda system for distributed computing, that improves liquidity and provides greater transparency.

To assess and maintain the quality of LedgerEdge’s platform, Exactpro is developing a test library using the model-based capabilities of th2, Exactpro’s next-generation toolkit for automating functional and non-functional testing of distributed transaction processing systems.

As the project continues its pilot-phase in anticipation of the expected release during the second half of 2021, Exactpro has completed a functional requirements review at this early stage of the project and carried out functional touch testing of the components and applications delivered so far.

Commenting on the announcement, Alyona Bulda, Head of the Global Exchanges Division at Exactpro, said: “We are delighted to partner with LedgerEdge on such an ambitious and innovative project. The past year has highlighted the importance of operational resiliency and Exactpro continues to develop and deliver effective testing solutions in order to meet this growing demand.”

Robert Bose, Chief Technology Officer at LedgerEdge, commented: “We are passionate about delivering the future of corporate bond trading. As we get closer to launch, it’s necessary to have a trusted partner to help us test our operational resilience and ensure we can meet the demands of the market. Exactpro’s bespoke tools and methods will enable us to achieve this, and we are excited to see the results of our collaboration.”

E-wallet specialist STICPAY is launching a cashback service for its gaming and gambling customers worldwide in early May.

The new service enables users to receive a percentage of money they have spent through cashback when they start using an online gaming partner’s services. Cashback, as the fintech firm is describing it, can be reclaimed anytime using a number of payment methods or gamers can spend their balance with STICPAY partners, which have signed-up to the program.

Initially, 20 STICPAY partners have signed-up for the service, with the London-based fintech firm saying it is looking to regularly add new gaming platform partners.

STICPAY’s customers use e-wallet services for e-commerce, transfer of funds to family members and for forex trading, both for seasoned professionals and individuals as well as playing games such as casino and poker. The firm has experienced year-on-year growth of 300% across its global user base that now numbers over 100,000. While it is headquartered in London, 60% of transactions come from Asia.

The move follows a cashback facility, which includes Google Play and Apple apps, specifically for forex traders which was launched at the start of the year.

Cashback for the gaming and gambling communities had been scheduled for a later date but STICPAY’s client service director James Bay says: ‘The forex cashback facility is proving very popular with our customers across the world, so moving the service for gamers forward is no gamble.’

Cardiff-based talent intelligence provider, Talent Intuition, has been ranked in JP Morgan Private Bank’s Top 200 Top 200 Female Powered Businesses. The list, published last week, recognises high-growth private UK businesses that have grown sales, headcount or valuation at extraordinary rates. Talent Intuition, the company behind Stratigens, is ranked 186.

J.P Morgan Private Bank, in partnership with Beauhurst, commissioned the report out of a pressing need to provide a more nuanced understanding of the role of women in UK business and enterprise. The report is the first of its kind and takes a broader approach, not only focusing on female-founded firms, but capturing a more diverse group of companies to tell a richer story.

Talent Intuition, established in 2018, has received funding from Development Bank of Wales as well as private investors and is scaling rapidly though its platform offering, Stratigens. Stratigens is a labour market analytics platform that brings together data on skills, diversity and location so companies can make smarter decisions about people and real estate. This information is more in demand than ever, post-pandemic as firms re-think their skills and real estate footprint.

Commenting on the report, Oliver Gregson, Head of United Kingdom & Ireland at J.P. Morgan Private Bank said:

“We have long focused on empowering women in the workplace and beyond by helping to expand women-run businesses, improve financial health and advance career growth. The knowledge gained through this report can help us tackle systemic challenges and enable the continued success of women entrepreneurs, female funders and businesses powered by women.”

Alison Ettridge, CEO of Talent Intuition said:

“This report shows that of the UK’s 33,000 high-growth companies, more than 6,000 are led, founded or managed by women and I’m proud to be one of them, especially in the tech space where we know from our own data that females are underrepresented. We are privileged to be included on this list alongside other exceptional and innovative companies. It’s a positive indication that we are on target with our ambitious growth plans.”

Banking technology company LEVERIS has announced its partnership with Marqeta, the global card issuing platform, to integrate its modern card capabilities within the LEVERIS digital banking platform.

The partnership enables LEVERIS to rapidly build, issue and deploy new payment and finance solutions through card products. It will allow banks and non-banks using the LEVERIS platform to provide card users with more control and a greater customer experience when it comes to spending.

With Marqeta’s support, the LEVERIS platform will facilitate the issuance of virtual, physical and digital debit cards for multiple use cases. LEVERIS clients will have the ability to create virtual cards in real-time and push them instantly to mobile wallets. As well as card issuance, the partnership enables greater card parameterisation, fraud mitigation in card transactions and speed to market in a variety of currencies.

Marqeta’s proprietary Just-in-Time (JIT) funding capability provides LEVERIS with full control over transactions, allowing operators using the LEVERIS platform to apply decisioning tools in real-time. A dynamic API centred on spending controls enables them to set card level parameters around card usage, with rules governing merchant categories, frequency of use, cashback, country acceptance, ATM usage and much more.

Commenting on the partnership, Conor Fennelly, founder and CEO at LEVERIS, said: “We are very pleased to announce this partnership with Marqeta. With its support, LEVERIS can help its clients launch new customised card products that have much more flexible controls and features. Both companies share the same vision to use great technology to make banking and financial services better. As LEVERIS continues to scale, this partnership will help us widen our footprint. We look forward to our teams working closely together in the months and years ahead.”

Ian Johnson, SVP, Managing Director, Europe at Marqeta, said: “Marqeta is delighted to be partnering with LEVERIS – a forward-thinking innovator in the digital banking and lending platform space. There’s a close synergy between the two companies with LEVERIS’ ambitions certain to maximise Marqeta’s modern card payment processing technology.”

The LEVERIS platform is entirely software-defined, operates in the cloud and is completely independent of legacy banking technology. As well as offering SaaS to both traditional and challenger banks, LEVERIS provides Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to non-financial companies entering the financial services space.

Founded in 2010, Marqeta is a global, modern card issuing platform and supports some of the world’s leading innovators at scale, including Square, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Uber, Affirm, Instacart and DoorDash, by providing advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment solutions. It is enabled in 36 countries worldwide and by the end of 2020, more than 270 million cards had been issued through the Marqeta platform.

Marqeta is one of several market-leading companies whose services are integrated into the LEVERIS platform, ensuring that it is a complete end-to-end, out-of-the-box proposition. The platform provides financial institutions with a foundation for building and launching, with all the key capabilities needed to run a modern digital bank built-in from the start.

Today ikigai, the premium fintech app, launches its new stocks & shares ISA.

Building on its comprehensive savings and investment services, ikigai’s stocks & shares ISA will further help people to spend well, save well and invest well. The news comes in time for the new ISA season, allowing ikigai existing, and new customers, to start investing and benefit from their first tax-free product. 

The new stocks & shares ISA will sit alongside ikigai’s premium Wealth service, giving its customers another way to save and invest their money and grow their financial nest egg. The offering will see customers able to invest all, or part of their £20,000 annual ISA allowance with ikigai, and benefit from tax-free gains on investments held in their stocks & shares ISA. When investing, capital is at risk and the value of the investment can fluctuate.

There are no additional fees for opening and funding a stocks & shares ISA with ikigai, which is included in its £10 flat monthly fee. New customers looking to open a stocks & shares ISA with ikigai, simply need to open an account and pass the investor profile. Once passed they can choose to create a goal and choose to make it a stocks & shares ISA. 

ikigai’s stocks & shares ISA investment portfolios are curated following a series of questions that take into account customers’ attitudes to risk, their investment goals, and the amount of money they wish to invest. 

Edgar de Picciotto, co-founder of ikigai, says: 

“We are very excited to announce the launch of our new ISA. Our new stocks & shares ISA is an important step towards giving our customers a comprehensive choice when it comes to investing their money. What makes ikigai’s stocks & shares ISA different from others on the market is all savings, spending, and investments are in one space for the client's convenience and transparency. This, along with the personal point of contact via a relationship manager each client is introduced to on signing up, gives the client confidence and insight into what their money is doing for them.” 

Full integration with ikigai’s Everyday, Nest and Wealth features means customers will be able to easily split the money into their stocks & shares ISA alongside their other spending, saving and investing accounts. Each customer will also have exclusive access to a relationship manager when setting up a stocks & shares  ISA, ensuring a high-touch, personal experience for all their investment needs. 

The new stocks & shares ISA launch comes during ikigai’s crowdfunding campaign, which kicked off in April, in which it aims to raise a further £1.2 million. Previously, ikigai raised £2 million from private and angel investors in a pre-seed round completed in 2020. 

It is important to know that before creating and opening an investor profile and stocks & shares ISA with ikigai, the following criteria must be met:

• You must be a UK tax resident and over 18

• You cannot have opened and funded another stocks and shares ISA this tax year (i.e. since April 6th, 2021. Customers can fund a pre-existing ISA, but cannot fund two ISAs opened in the same tax-year.)

• You must have contributed less than this year’s ISA allowance (£20,000) to any other type of ISA. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.

Personal loans, also known as signature loans, unsecured loans, and signature-based financing, allow a borrower to borrow funds from a lending institution with the loan amount not backed by any collateral. Unsecured personal loans typically have lower interest rates, lower fees, and longer repayment terms than credit cards or payday loans. Additionally, unsecured personal loans are usually easier to obtain than other types of loans.

It Can Be Used for Anything

Personal loans are available in amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars so that you can use yours for anything. Whether you're planning a trip around the world or redoing your bedroom, there's a loan for that.

If you have the means to make regular monthly payments and have worked for at least two years, you will likely qualify.

You Can Repay It Quickly

Unlike some loans, you don't have to wait 30 years to pay off your personal loan. When you need a new set of wheels, it's tempting to finance them with a car loan. But once you do that, you've got to start paying interest immediately. It's not unusual to spend four or five years paying every month to pay off the interest.

It doesn't have to be that way.

If you use a personal loan, you can repay it quickly. And there are several ways to do it. Pay off your loan more quickly by sending in extra payments. You can do this at any time by just sending in extra money with your payment or by scheduling payments for a specific date and amount. In most cases, if you make an extra payment, we'll apply for that money directly to the principal of your loan, which will cut down on the total amount you pay.

You Can Repay Over Time

Even if your business doesn't have a steady income stream, that doesn't mean you can't secure a personal loan. You may be surprised to learn that you can qualify for loans without a steady income. Some lenders prefer to work with self-employed borrowers because they know it's an investment in a future stream of income. If you run your own business, don't rule out a personal loan just because you don't have a set salary. The alternative to applying for a personal loan is usually relying on the bank for a line of credit – which may not be available or could come with unreasonable terms and fees.

Refinancing. Often, getting a personal loan can be used to refinance a business loan and reduce the monthly interest payments on an existing loan.

Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention

A personal loan can be used for many reasons, including paying for a wedding, starting a business venture, or paying off unexpected bills. A personal loan provides the much-needed flexibility in your monthly budget to handle various expenses that arise.

Know Your Terms

Personal loans are generally amortized over 3 to 7 years, and payments are usually made monthly. Some lenders will allow for payment in two instalments monthly, which helps to lower the interest rate. Also, it is important to understand how much you are being charged in terms of an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and the repayment schedule. Make sure you understand all the terms before agreeing to any loan

You want to start or grow your business.

Starting a business is tricky and hard work. For some of us, taking on a loan is an opportunity to get serious about growing our businesses. If you plan to grow your business significantly, working with a small business loan company can help you achieve your goals faster than ever before.

Conclusion

Personal loans are an amazing way to acquire the things you need, have or want. They can enable you to buy a new computer, go on a fabulous trip, or remodel your home. Personal loans are especially great for those who have good credit and qualify for a low-interest rate. You can apply for a personal loan from your bank, or from a third party lender such as Prosper or LendingClub or from a  payday loan online. If you have good credit, it's practically guaranteed that you will be approved for a loan from one of these companies.

The average interest rate for a personal loan is between 9 and 15 per cent. If you can afford to pay it back within two years, a personal loan can be a great way to get your hands on money. But if you know that it will take you longer than two years to pay back the money, it may be better to try other options.