Banksalad review

The arrangement fee is free, with nothing charged to you for the loan contract or its execution, and the origination fee percentage is 0%. What you pay is the rate on the loan itself, which runs at 3.66% to 19.9% depending on what you qualify for.

Banksalad is registered with the Financial Services Commission as a loan recruitment agency, and its registration number is 2021-005. The broking side is licensed in Korea, while the lending itself sits with the bank that takes the application forward.

The credit check is a soft prequal one, so you can see an indicative rate and how much you might borrow before committing. A full credit file search follows once you decide to go ahead with a specific offer from a lender.

Banksalad covers personal and secured loans, so you can look at borrowing without collateral as well as borrowing secured against an asset. Both run on the same 3.66% to 19.9% range, and the arrangement fee stays free on either.

Banksalad serves a single market, based in South Korea, and offers are made to Korean borrowers. If you live and borrow elsewhere, the 3.66% to 19.9% range here does not apply and a lender in your own market is the better place to start.

Banksalad works as a broker, so it introduces you to lenders rather than lending its own money. The rate you get comes from the lender you are matched with, which is why the 3.66% to 19.9% range matters more than any headline figure.

Support runs on email and help centre only, so you have email and a help centre rather than a phone line. Worth knowing before you apply, especially if a lender is asking for information you need to query quickly.

The service is operated by Banksalad Co., Ltd. ((주)뱅크샐러드), a Korean company that matches borrowers with lenders rather than carrying the debt itself. As a broker its role stops at the introduction, so the contract you sign is with the lender named in the offer.