Castle Finance Direct is a personal loan broker based in Birmingham and found online at www.castlefinancedirect.co.uk. Whilst they do broker their leads they are interestingly also authorised to lend on their credit licence (#544662). This is a highly experienced company that has been trading since back in 2003. They have operated through other trading names over the years. This has included Apple Tree Loans and UK Loans Direct that are each now closed. There have also been some financing companies that we couldn’t track down on the web and so those too may have ceased. This featured firm has however stood the test of time, that isn’t commonly seen with fee-charging brokers.

The admin fee in place here is priced at £79. We only spotted this by browsing the bottom of the homepage where it is briefly noted. The specifics surrounding the charge are outlined in their terms and conditions page. The product that is pitched is a poor credit unsecured loan spanning between £300 and £15,000 with terms of 12 up to 60 months. The representative APR is listed as 32% that seems awfully low considering that they promote such headlines as CCJs, defaults etc in their site copy. The lender panel is not mentioned other than that they do access a large pool. The applications taken through www.castlefinancedirect.co.uk are not currently encrypted.

The Castle Finance Direct reviews online studied generally took us to pages where customers were seeking refunds. This obviously wouldn’t be happening if the charge was displayed more clearly. It doesn’t appear very easy to attain refunds and they aim to reply to complaints within 28 days that is pretty shocking. It is worth reminding however that they are fully licensed and that they have been running for a long time now and so you would assume that they are providing a good overall service to those that find them. The problem stems from those that mistakenly proceed without authorising the finders fee. If you are facing problems, then we’d suggest contacting the FOS.