Greenwood loans (also known as Greenwood Personal Credit) was closed in April 2014 by Provident Financial Plc who acquired them in 1977. It was announced that this firm had been merged into the central one, but it feels more like a loss now that this historic name will fade away. The acquisition itself was made to mark their 100th anniversary, with their origins dating back to 1877. This was just a few years before their owner was formed in 1880 and so these companies had certainly played out as rivals over their history. It is however not clear which particular market this featured company started operating in when they launched.

The product served through www.greenwoodpersonalcredit.com was adapted to match Provident’s in every way and so the same available cash and terms could be received, the same agents were used etc. There was just a few slight differences such as the domain age and there was no dedicated website for Ireland here. The central firm also started to trial a no agent online service that would later be adapted into Satsuma Loans. When this featured company was active they offered new applicants between £100 and £500 across repayments of 14, 23, 32 or 52 weeks. Return users could access as much as £2500 with an extended term of 110 weeks.

There was no logins at www.greenwoodpersonalcredit.com. You could securely apply here, but all aspects of the loan were managed through an agent. The cost of a £300 sum over 32 weeks was £180. Applications were processed between Monday and Friday (8am/8pm) and on Saturday (8.30am/5pm). When Greenwood loans closed, some may have questioned whether the doorstep loan sector is losing out to online lenders. Whilst this may be the case the likelihood is that Provident simply wanted to use a central doorstep brand so that they could focus on other projects. As well as Satsuma they have recently setup Tandem (now GLO) and they continue to operate the Vanquis Cards.