social lending|p2p borrowing|person to person borrowing|person to person lending

The Bigcarrots marketplace - Letter of engagement

1. To participate in the Bigcarrots marketplace you must be 18 or over, have a UK bank account in your own name. You agree to verify this account where such verification will enable Bigcarrots to ascertain you are the user of the nominated bank account
2. You agree to Bigcarrots.com Ltd using your address details to verify you for identification purposes. You agree to provide the last 3 years history for such purposes. To a credit agency for identification purposes, they will record this check.
3. You agree to Bigcarrots.com performing credit checks where such credit checks are necessary for borrower ratings.
4. Information Commissioner Rules and regulations dictate that Bigcarrots.com must state for what purposes we may use your personal information. We use your data for the following purposes; to identify you, analysis for marketing purposes, to update your records held with us, to assess lending risks, to identify fraud, to indentify money laundering, to keep you informed of our products and services, to maintain your account and communicate with you, to comply with regulations laid down by law. You agree to us using your information in the ways demonstrated in the letter of engagement. We will only release information about you if you request and authorise us to do so by way of using the Bigcarrots.com marketplace. To a credit agency for identification purposes, they will record this check, for borrowers to perform credit searches, prevent fraud, to inform credit agencies of opening of a loan account and how you operate that account. To a collection agency or other agency required in the running of your account. No data is released to any third party outside this letter of engagement.
5. You agree not to lend more than £25,000 on the system without undertaking further discussions with Bigcarrots.com Ltd.
6. You agree that Limited Companies will not lend to other Limited Companies on the system without a Credit licence.
7. You agree that a group or club or syndicate appoints and authorises one user to make decisions on where to lend money in the marketplace and that the nominated person is accountable for all decisions the group, club or syndicate makes on the system.
8. If you are a business and offer credit during the course of your normal business you are not permitted to use the Bigcarrots system. The Bigcarrots system can only be used by authorised individuals.
9. Bigcarrots.com will restrict or remove account holders who breach this agreement.
10. Funds cannot be lent that form part of or the users instruct other parties to allow the use of funds from a self invested pension fund, or other investment vehicle not authorised by the FSA.
11. You may allow a third party to engage funds and make decisions on your behalf but you agree that you fully indemnify Bigcarrots.com for all errors, omissions or losses, and or damages.
12. You agree to keep confidential and secret your username, password and security questions at all times. If you think any of these have been compromised you must inform us immediately you discover such a breach for us to suspend the account. Do not leave details on your computer that would allow another person access to your account. You are solely responsible and liable for all use on the system using your account by any party to whom you give your pass details. If the pass details entered are correct we will allow full access to your account and assume that no further checks are required as to the validity of the person using the account. We will refuse access to your account where we think or consider the activity unusual or used for an illegal purpose.
13. If unauthorised activity takes place on the system we will not be held liable for this activity.
14. Access to the Bigcarrots.com marketplace is via My Account - To access the system you need to follow the questions and answers those correctly.
15. If you do not meet any of the criteria laid out in the letter of engagement Bigcarrots.com reserves the right not to register any lender or borrower.
16. On My Account we will show you the funds transferred to and from your account, the auction listings you are bidding on, or listings you have placed which maybe current, expired or non winning bids, completed loans and the repayments received or made. Your personal details and FAQs on how to use the system.
17. Each year we will make available a statement of account for interest purposes. Any request for statement of interest outside this period will be charge £10 for each request. Interest gained by lenders is taxable income and we do not provide tax advice you must account for tax on your interest gains to HMRC.
18. As a lender you agree that when you place a pledge to a borrower that this pledge is legal and binding that cannot be withdrawn. If the loan is fully funded and you are successful in your pledge then the loan becomes final when the borrower signs the loan agreement. If the borrower does not agree to the terms of the loan then funds are returned immediately to each lender for them to bid on other auction listings. If the loan is not fully funded the funds are return to the lenders for them to bid on other auction listings.
19. The borrower will agree to setup loan repayments by direct debit. For which no charge will be made on repayments made on time. A borrower can pay by cheque for which a fee of £6 is charged for each cheque paid in on their behalf; this should be added to the repayment amount. These repayments will be posted to the lenders virtual account within 24 hours of receipt, these funds can then be withdrawn to a nominated bank account or used to bid on auction listings in the Bigcarrots.com marketplace.
20. Monies received back into you virtual account can be relent out automatically using our automatic lending system, you can set the criteria on how you wish to lend and the system will match and bid for you according to the criteria given, you start or stop this at any time but bids already placed are binding.
21. The maximum amount a lender can bid on an auction listing is 75% of the loan amount requested. But we recommend that lenders do not lend more than 5% of the value of a loan amount requested. The more bidders there are on each loan the less risk you take. For new bidders we recommend pledges of £25 to £100 for an auction listing.
22. When you have logged into My Account and have cleared funds in your virtual lending account you can select any auction listing and bid individually on that listing. You can also use three selection tool methods that will find listings based on your criteria. These are explained in My Account>Lend Now.
23. You understand and agree that to make a lending decision you must read the borrower member content to decide whether you wish to lend to that business. You can also look at the credit score, stability and affordability ratings provided by credit bureaus. I understand that the data provided on each auction listing shall be used by me to obtain knowledge about a borrowers business but should not of itself be used by me to assess the creditworthiness of that borrower. I undertake at all times to exercise my own judgment in the use of the data provided and the borrowers' data provided and I shall be solely liable and responsible for all actions I take in funding any borrower I choose to participate in. We use all reasonable care and skill to obtain accurate information but this should not of itself be relied upon and we do not warrant, guarantee or represent data to be accurate or complete, up to date or error free, Each borrower is checked for anti fraud purposes and agrees to credit bureau searches to ascertain a rating for the purposes of credit score, affordability and stability - These ratings are provided as a guide only and low ratings may indicate not enough information is available or the borrower is a new business. You agree that opinions shown on these ratings are final and correspondence will not be entered into or listings changed. If you disagree with the information provided the borrower can withdraw their listing at any time without refund of any auction listing fees paid. The fee covers the searches and credit analyst costs and is payable for an auction listing on the Bigcarrots.com marketplace.
24. Bigcarrots.com provides the mechanics for business to take place between the lender and the borrower and does not give advice, lend or borrow on the Bigcarrots.com marketplace.
25. When a fully funded auction listing is submitted to the borrower, it will offer the loan at the average nominal rate and is shown as an annual percentage rate for indicative purposes only. The borrower has 48 hours to decide whether they want the loan on the terms shown. If the borrower declines the offer the pledges are cancelled and returned to the lenders virtual accounts. If the borrower accepted the terms the Bigcarrots.com team will perform due diligence and will complete, postpone or cancel the loan within 5 working days. We will only cancel the loan offer if the information you provided does not match with our due diligence investigations. We will only postpone a loan if further time is needed to perform due diligence where such information is delayed beyond our control. But we will not postpone a loan greater than 10 working days. When a loan is fully completed the funds will be sent by direct transfer to the nominated account. We will verify this account by sending 4 digits which you must report back to us before the loan funds are sent to that account. The borrower agrees to sign a board resolution accepting the terms of the loan. The borrower agrees to provide the name and address and telephone number of the company accountant and the company's main bankers. The borrower agrees to Bigcarrots.com making all enquiries and searches necessary to perform due diligence.
26. If information is found to be fraudulent or inaccurate then the loan will be declared void and reported to credit reference agencies.
27. Borrowers and lenders can see how much interest and repayments they will get by clicking on the Get a loan tab at the top of the site, using the loan calculator fill in the amount and interest rate and press calculate. The data provided is for indicative purposes only and should not be relied upon as fact, advice or a basis for making lending or borrowing decisions. Remember these amounts are before 1% annual fee levied on lenders repayments and does not include any defaults or late payments. It does not include the borrower fee of 3% or £50 whichever is the greater; if you want to borrow a specific amount remember to take this fee into account as it will reduce the amount you receive.
28. All borrowers and lenders undertake that the information they give is true and accurate and complete for the purposes of operating their account on Bigcarrots.com.
29. Borrower listings that remain unfunded after 7 days will be relisted monthly for 3 entries. After this time the auction listings will be removed. If a borrower wishes to relist after this period another listing fee will have to be paid and a new set of ratings calculated.
30. Each lender agrees that if a payment is missed after a breach contract and the timeframe laid down in these terms for late payments they will subcontract to a collection agency nominated by Bigcarrots.com who will perform such duties to obtain delayed or delinquent payments from the borrower on their behalf. The cost of this is included in the 1% annual fee. The lender agrees not to attempt to chase payments as an individual as this might compromise the work of the collection agency and or raise preference to one lender over another.
31. The identity of both borrower and lender is kept confidential at all times and both parties agree not to reveal such identity even if discovered accidentally.
32. The borrower agrees that early repayment can be made to pay off the loan and close the contract by payment in full of the principal outstanding and all interest due under the contract. There are no penalties for repaying early. There are no rebates of interest agreed or implied under the loan contract
33. If a borrower becomes financially stressed in the course of a valid contract then the borrower agrees to contact Bigcarrots.com as soon as such position arises by contacting repayments@bigcarrots.com. We will work the borrower to ensure that full payment is made to each and every lender included in the contract jointly and fairly. Whereupon we will inform you of the options for repayment and whether it will be passed to a collection agency. If despite our attempts to contact the borrower who is late with payments no contact can be made then this will be passed to credit agencies and will seriously impact on the company's ability to get credit.
34. If after 4 months of delinquency (where repayments are not made in the course of each repayment date agreed in the loan contract) each lender agree to transfer all rights to the principal and interest due to a collection agency. If the loan is charged off whereby the loan is sold on to a third party, the proceeds of this minus any fees will be jointly distributed fairly to each lender in proportion to their contribution to the loan. If either of these happens we will give 30 days notice after this decision has been made. I.E. Borrower is delinquent for 120 days of full repayments. The price negotiated by Bigcarrots.com will be final and in the best interests of the lenders.
35. If the borrower is late in payment the borrower agrees we reserve the right to charge a £25 fee plus monthly interest at 5% until the fee is paid. Other fees for tracing and provision of documentation including but not exhaustive each time or request from a collection agency £25. Litigation costs as they arise, debt counselling at cost. We will give the borrower 28 days notice of any action taken to recover monies outstanding more than 30 days on the account except where court action is planned.
36. The lender's My Account holds a virtual account of cleared funds for the lender to pledge to auction listings, each amount sent from your nominated bank account to us are held in a trust account and will be recorded upon receipt within 24 hours. These amounts are available until you pledge a sum of money to an auction listing, at which point those funds will be held to that auction listing until completed or cancelled, if the listing is unfunded or cancelled the funds are returned to your account immediately.
37. No interest is earned on the trust account; this account is held in perpetuity for 80 from the creation of the trust. The trust account does not form part of the assets of Bigcarrots.com. All payments by lenders to borrowers are made through this account. Repayments made by borrowers are credited to their borrowing account and the repayments split and distributed to the lenders accounts.
38. If no activity takes place for 18 months on a lender's account, the account will be closed and any funds returned to the last known address by cheque.
39. The borrower is charged a listing fee of £35 and 3% or £50 whichever is the greater for each loan completed; we may from time to time waive all or part of this fee for promotional purposes. We may increase this fee in the future and this will be displayed before the fee payment is taken.
40. The lender is charged at 1% of the principal amount lent out on each loan; this covers any default recovery costs and monitoring. We may from time to time waive all or part for promotional purposes or increase this fee which we will give 30 days notice before such increase.
41. The acceptance of an auction listing from a borrower is no guarantee of successful funding; you are paying for an auction listing advertisement on the Bigcarrots.com marketplace.
42. The user of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace are responsible for their own telecommunication, digital and associated charges for broadband, dial up and any other internet service whether paid for on contract or pay as you go, or paid for services at any internet provider or retail provider away from or at your main internet connection or any other way of connecting to provide access and use of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace.
43. The terms of the letter of engagement may change or be varied at any time and notice of these changes will be sent via internal messaging systems within the secure environment of Bigcarrots.com. Messages sent will be deemed to be delivered and read and agreed to with despatch being proof of delivery. You may close your account if you do not agree to the variations notified from time to time.
44. The lender or borrower can close their account when all listings completed have been completed and closed. If payments or lending pledges are still active the account cannot be closed. When accounts are close we will retain all records necessary by law and hold them securely. You can close your account by sending an email to: closeaccount@bigcarrots.com.
45. We may terminate your Bigcarrots.com account if you have breached any terms of this agreement, lied to us, become bankrupt, die or enter in a voluntary arrangement outside the terms of this letter of engagement. If we terminate your account any unused funds will be sent to your nominated bank account within 28 days of such termination.
46. If we suspect your account has been compromised or you are a victim of fraud we will suspend the account immediately and inform you as soon as possible under the circumstances and as far as the law allows.
47. If a borrower account is terminated but existing contracts are in force then this will not affect the borrower's obligation to any existing contracts.
48. The data Protection act allows for us to send to you any records of personal information we hold on you. You can request these records by emailing contactus@bigcarrots.com, a small fee will be payable.
49. Data sent between both parties for the operation of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace must remain confidential at all times, borrowers and lenders agree not to divulge to any other party these details or use these details for any other purpose than the operation of the loan at the Bigcarrots.com marketplace. You must inform us if you think any of this data has been compromised. This data is to be taken as complete facts and final.
50. All users of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace agree not to upload material, pictures, data or any action that may cause an infringement of privacy, personal rights or copyright, be considered libellous, defamatory, or unlawful. You agree not to use this site for the collection of data, Email, personal information, of any users of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace. You agree not to use the site in any other way that the purpose it was designed for the meeting of lenders and borrowers to do business, you agree not to overload, or damage the system or upload any damaging material including virus or programs or scripts to obtain information or impair the operation of the website or its servers. You agree not to use the site for any purpose that may convey discrimination on racial, age, sex, or sexual orientation partiality, you may not use offensive language or symbols, and you may not harass or intimidate any other users. No unsolicited communication is allowed other than asking of questions on auction listings, when asking questions no member may divulge personal details, telephone numbers or Email addresses and should not reveal their identity or location or surname. Users agree not to use the site for promotion of other services or sale of goods or products. You will not attempt to obtain information from any users for any purpose other than the normal operation of the website. You agree that all content posted on the website is owned by you and does not infringe on any other parties right or you have written permission to use such content. We may change, alter, delete or amend any information posted on the website without giving reason or notification if we deem it unsuitable or inaccurate or in breach of the letter of engagement.
51. Bigcarrots.com retains the rights to all information published on the website and the users agree to such rights transferring to Bigcarrots.com that may be used for promotional purposes, analysis, and distribution worldwide that we may copy, extract, display publicly, use in publication distribution in perpetuity all material posted on the site. If members remove or update their content archives may exist with that content and licence rights retained, deleted material will not be available on the website. You agree to indemnify Bigcarrots.com and its agents, employees, developers, directors, contractors, against any action due to loss, liability, demands, costs, expenses, and attorney fees, brought against you for the use or comment, or content posted or opinion voiced or any use of the Bigcarrots.com marketplace that results in such action being taken against you. The Bigcarrots.com logo and content is licensed under copyright, if we do not exercise our rights relating to our copyright then this will not preclude us from doing so in the future.
52. You are responsible for all interactions with Bigcarrots members, we monitor such interactions but Bigcarrots.com is not under obligation to monitor these interactions. We are not responsible for the actions on or offline of Bigcarrots.com members and users, their content and their opinions are their own and not an opinion or content of Bigcarrots.com.
53. Use of Bigcarrots.com - The Bigcarrots.com website is licensed under copyright and owned by Bigcarrots.com Limited. The use of information inside the marketplace is allowed for reasonable record keeping, reasonable copies can be made, displayed and stored on a computer or hard copy as reasonable necessary for the operation of you account. The information gathered can only be for personal and not commercial uses. You agree not to reproduce or modify any of the website data, redistribute, alter any copyrighted material, logos or website content, or create any storage of data outside the Bigcarrots.com marketplace without prior permission. We reserve the right to change our software or content at any time without notice.
54. We do not warrant that the site is virus free, and that the server will be reliable with a 24 hour service, you do not hold us liable or responsible for faults, failure or interruption of service that causes in operation of the site. We will make reasonable endeavour to ensure the site is secure, virus free and in constant operation, however, we may have downtime for maintenance which will be reported from time to time. You are responsible for enabling your own security arrangements, data backups and downloading of information or use of the Bigcarrots.com website. You are responsible for any damage to your data or computer as a result of downloading or use of the Bigcarrots.com website.
55. We sometimes have links to third party providers - no endorsement or affiliation is to be implied by these links which may include contact details. You must decide whether a link is suitable for you and meets your interest or applicable to click any such links, you are responsible for any actions taken as a result of clicking such links; Bigcarrots.com does not warrant, recommend or endorse any such links. These are provided for the enjoyment and entertainment of the user only. We are not responsible for their availability or suitability. You agree not to link our site with any other site or computer or network without our prior permission.
56. Our liability - i. We undertake that all dealings with you will be fair and honest. ii. We will not discriminate against any member of Bigcarrots.com on the grounds of sex, race, sexuality, ethnicity or disability. iii. Any errors or mistakes will be addressed in a timely manner. iv. All complaints will be handled fairly and in a timely manner. v. We shall only be liable for foreseeable losses or damage arising from our own breach of the terms or our negligence of our own employees but not including our developers, contractors, agents and our compensation will only extend to the amount of the total loss or damage of your profits lost related to such claim. vi. We will not be liable for loss as a result of error or wrong information or content entered by a Bigcarrots user. vii. If the borrower loan contract is shown to be negligent, in breach of contract, misrepresents or as a result of wilful misconduct a claim arises we are not liable. viii. We are not liable for any consequential loss arising from circumstances beyond our control.
57. If any part of these terms and conditions or letter of engagement are found to be unenforceable in a court of law then the remainder of this agreement remains valid. This agreement is governed under the English law courts.
58. The site is in English and will only be operated and communicated in English.
59. If you have a complaint you should contact our customer services at: contactus@bigcarrots.com. They will inform you of the complaints procedure.
60. This contract is between the Bigcarrots.com user and Bigcarrots.com Ltd.
61. WARNING- You may not get back the money you invest.

Definitions:
Bigcarrots.com marketplace
This is a website where lenders and borrowers meet to do business with each other
Bigcarrots user
This a member of site who has registered an account and either lends on the system to other borrowers or borrows on the system from other lenders
Bigcarrots Member
A member is someone who is a Bigcarrots user
Lender
A lender is a Bigcarrots user who makes an offer of money to a business auction listing with a specific interest rate return.
Borrower
A borrower is a limited company who has registered on the system given their company number and details with the view to posting a borrowing auction listing on the Bigcarrots marketplace.
Auction listing
An auction listing is a listing by a borrower placed onto the Bigcarrots.com marketplace asking for a specific business loan amount, at a target preferred interest rate over a specific time period.
Preferred Interest Rate
Is the rate set by a borrower that they will accept a loan at or below
Business loan Amount
This is the amount of money a borrower wants to lend
Lending pledge
This is an amount of money offered by a lender to a borrower towards their entire loan
Successful funding
Whereby a borrower's listing is completely funded to the business loan amount requested.
Principal Amount
The original amount of the loan a lender makes before interest is added.
Interest
The amount added to the principal of the loan, this can be nominal interest (I.E. Amount of rate bid) or Annual percentage rate (APR)
Bid
A number to pledge on an auction listing.
Virtual Account
An account created on the Bigcarrots marketplace which hold funds that have been cleared and sent to or from the trust account.
Trust Account
A bank account held in trust by way of a legal document that protects it by law.
Breach of contract
Whereby the member takes or performs an action against the agreement signed and against rules of operation of the Bigcarrots marketplace.
Financially stressed
Where a company can no longer meet its financial obligations on time or on demand.
Nominated Account
A bank account that a borrower or lender nominates as their primary bank account for receiving or making payments to their virtual account.
Bigcarrots Ratings
The ratings prepared by a business analyst from the borrower's information provided and credit searches forming an overall opinion of the business and its current trading status, scores are given out of 100 for credit score, stability and affordability.
Member Content
Means any information including pictures, text and opinions uploaded to the system or typed onto their account that the member has put onto the Bigcarrots.com marketplace onto their own profile accessed by passwords and security questions.
Loan contract
This is the document that details the lenders and average interest rates and terms of the loan including the amount and period that the borrower signs on behalf of the limited company.
Collection Agency
Means a autonomous agency authorised and regulated to perform overdue repayment collections as appointed by Bigcarrots.com marketplace on behalf of lenders.
Credit Bureau
Means a credit reference agency appointed by the Bigcarrots.com marketplace to provide information on limited companies about their finances and for identification purposes.