About Choose Wisely

What’s Choose Wisely?

Choose Wisely is the UK’s 7th largest* price comparison website.

We are dedicated to making our user’s lives easier. We’re obsessed with putting consumers first. Although 99% of the non-standard finance consumer base struggles to get accepted to borrow, we believe borrowing money shouldn’t be this hard. We believe there is a product for everyone. That’s what makes Choose Wisely the go to place for underserved consumers.

For a full breakdown of our mission please read our Money for the many manifesto.

A brief history of Choose Wisely’s growth

Founders Marc Biles and Tara Flynn started Choose Wisely in 2013. Having worked for the Richmond group helping to start the UK’s largest guarantor loan product they then decided to start their own company with the aim of becoming a leader in FinTech.

Boasting a combined 27 years of experience in the UK financial services industry, Marc and Tara have been recognised for their achievements by their inclusion in Innovate Finance’s Women in FinTech Powerlist (Tara) and the Young Guns Class of 2017 (Marc/Tara).

Today they’re coaching the team on making a stand for financial inclusion, empowering those who need it most to Choose Wisely when it comes to money.

Our mission to bring Money to the Many is not only to help consumers get accepted for the credit they need today but to give them the tools to stay in control of their money forever.

Serving a large market of consumers we process an average of £56 billion in loan applications every year.

Choose Wisely has won the Gamechanger award in the 2018 Lending Awards sponsored by Experian and features in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in 2017 for being one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.

How do we help you?

We have a range of tools and guides on our website that can help users to get accepted for the money you need and to help you stay in control of your money forever.

To get started, see our journey on how to take control of your finances.

How do we talk to our customers?

Emails - we will email you about your application.
SMS - we will send you messages about your application.
Whatsapp - we will send you messages about your application.
Email newsletters - If you opt-in, occasionally we will send you updates about products, tips and guides on how to improve your chance of acceptance.
Social
The content the site publishes
Loan calculator
Budget calculator
Product pages
Q+A sections
Comments on the guides

Benefits and outcomes

We hope that by using our website customers find the right product for them quickly and easily. Helping them to feel included in an industry where they’ve often been an afterthought.

We hope this helps to relieve stress, giving people more time to focus on the important things in life.

What is a credit broker?

A credit broker is a person, business or entity that deals in brokerage of consumer credit. Essentially a credit broker links somebody looking for consumer credit, with a company or individual willing to provide it, normally for a commission.

What is a provider?

A provider is a person, business or entity that supplies funds to a person looking for consumer credit and is also referred to as the creditor. The funds offered are based on a credit agreement whereby the person searching for consumer credit will incur a charge in the form of interest for borrowing the funds.

What is an introducer?

An introducer is someone who generates customers. Typically they won’t service those customers themselves but will partner with a credit broker such as Choose Wisely or a directly with a lender.

Do we work with every provider on the market?

It is always our goal to allow our customers to compare as wide a range of options as possible to help them find the best product fit for them.

However we do believe, in some cases, too much choice can make the job of choosing harder than neccessary.

Not every provider in the market can be included in our services, for a number of reasons. Sometimes providers do not wish to be shown in comparison tables. It’s also possible that sometimes, providers ethics, goals and commercial standpoint do not align with that of our own.

Where new, suitable providers enter the market we try and make an effort to form a partnership so they can feature in our tables.

How does Choose Wisely work?

We have a range of free tools that allow you to compare thousands of products across areas from bank accounts, prepaid cards, credit cards, loans and energy switching.

To make the most Choose Wisely has to offer we recommend:

Step 1 - Use our comparison tables to browse suitable products. Where applicable we have specific forms such as our Check Eligibility application process for loans. This will show you which lenders will accept your application.

Step 2 - Filter and sort the tables to show the most relevant to you products in an order that make sense.

Step 3 - Select a product and click on the corresponding application button to move on to the providers site to finish your application with them.

Choose Wisely will not perform a credit check, lenders will complete a soft search when assessing whether they will accept your application. If you accept a lender’s offer, they will perform a hard credit search.

How is the website financed?

The website is run soley on the money it generates through it’s commercial partnerships with product providers. Choose Wisely has not recieved any further investment.

Choose Wisely does not charge customers a fee for using its services, but it receives a commission from lenders or other introducers/brokers if a customer enters into a consumer credit agreement following an introduction through this website.

Any commercial agreement we have in place with a provider won’t affect how we compare or rank your quotes. We will always try to display them in a way that helps you get the best deal.

This is why we’ve built filters and sorting functions into results listings where we can.

Is Choose Wisely regulated?

The FCA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services and we're required to give you this information to help you decide whether our services are right for you.

Any deals, best buys tips or suggestions on the main site are down to journalistic research from the Choose Wisely team.

The information on this website does not constitute financial advice.

All information is correct at time of publishing and we adhere to update our content regularly. It’s based on journalistic research and analysis rather than tailored advice aimed at individuals.

Purchasing decisions should only be taken after careful consideration of the effects, based on, and affecting personal circumstances. If you're unsure about which product or service to choose, we suggest you seek independent professional advice before purchasing it via our website.

How can I contact Choose Wisely?

You can contact us via email at:
hello@choosewisely.co.uk

Or through our online form on our designated contact page.

How can I complain about Choose Wisely?

If you would like to make a complaint please see our designated complaints page.

How do we use your data?

Your personal information’s safety and security is very important to us, and we do everything we can to make sure you feel confident that your details will be kept secure when you use our site.

We use HTTPS protection on our site to encrypt your personal information and turn it into an unreadable code, and to help keep it secure as it’s sent from your computer or device to our website. When you enter a HTTPS protected area, a small padlock or key will be displayed on the screen.

The main reason we process your personal data is to provide you with personalised comparison quotes that will help to save you money. For certain purposes – for example, to show you a list of products to compare – we may share your personal information with some other third parties when needed. These third parties would include our partners, service providers or our channel operators who design, run and maintain some of our channels.

You can find more details about how we use your personal data in our privacy policy.

How do you opt out of our emails?

Every email you recieve from us, whether it be in relation to your loan application or as a result of opting in to email marketing from us, will contain a link in the footer clearly labelled Unsubscribe. You can opt -out of further communication by clicking that link.

Alternatively please contact us via any of the methods described above and we’ll unsubscribe you from further communications.

For a full breakdown of our policies please visit one of the following links:
Terms
Privacy
Complaints
Responsible lending
Modern slavery
Cookies
CSR
Consumer duty

Company information:

Choose Wisely is a trading style of Choose Wisely Limited and is a free to use price comparison website. Choose Wisely Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a credit broker not a lender, firm reference number 730574 and is registered with the Information

Commissioner’s Office number Z3106681. Choose Wisely Limited is registered at This Workspace, 18 Albert Road, Bournemouth BH1 1BZ, Company Number 07580462.

*Based on estimated organic monthly visitors from a list of the UK’s 10 top comparison websites. Source: ahrefs.com Date: 20/09/2019