Borrowers Looking for An Efficient Way To Shop for Loans Can Benefit From Lending Marketplaces

In a Nutshell: Loans can help people buy their dream cars and consolidate debt, but searching for the right lending product can be time-consuming. Max Cash is a lending marketplace that can help borrowers, including those with bad credit, find loans. The company’s commitment to customer service is evident through its call center, which is always open.

Before the internet, consumers had to do a little more legwork to research items they were considering buying. If you were looking for a new car in the pre-internet days, you might have even tracked down someone who owned the model of vehicle you had your eye on so you could get their opinion of the car. But as we all know, the internet has changed many things.

Now we can hop online and get all the data we want about products, including technical specifications and customer reviews. But that isn’t to say that the internet has made shopping a cinch. The abundance of online information about products has led to a new problem — analysis paralysis — which can overwhelm us to the point that making the right decision feels impossible.

Fortunately, some businesses have recognized the frustration and confusion that product research can cause and have developed tools to help us find the solutions we really need. Max Cash helps consumers locate lending products that don’t break the bank. The company can also help save you from wasting your time scouring the internet for loans. 

We spoke with Constantine Amassiadis, Max Cash’s Vice President of Operations, to learn more about how the company helps consumers find the right loans. When Max Cash first started, it focused on assisting subprime customers to secure auto title loans. Amassiadis told us that letting people with bad credit use their vehicle as collateral for a loan is a way for them to access financial help when they may not have many other options.

After experiencing success in the auto title loan space, Max Cash began to expand to other financial products. The company now connects users to various lending options, including emergency loans, cash advances, and installment loans. The company also provides online resources that can help borrowers learn how to pay off their loans faster and easier.

“We help you get a loan, and then we help you pay off that loan,” Amassiadis said. “We try to pretty much be a one-stop shop for everyone, including people with fair or bad credit scores. When we first started, we were only in a couple of states, but now we have expanded to operate in almost of all of them.” 

There’s no denying that the name Max Cash has a certain ring to it. It almost sounds like a name you’d expect a superhero to use. A lot of the great superheroes in comic-book history have called on sidekicks to help them ward off bad guys and save the day.

Max Cash partners with lenders to save consumers’ days. The company isn’t a direct lender but a loan marketplace that connects borrowers with financing opportunities. Max Cash works with 26 lending partners, including online lenders and lenders that maintain a brick-and-mortar presence. 

Amassiadis told us that some consumers don’t feel comfortable securing loans online, so, if possible, the company directs them to an actual storefront in those instances. 

“If a lender can help to get a consumer a loan, then we’ll try and work with them,” Amassiadis told us. “Not every lender we work with operates in every state, but we have lending partners all across the nation, and we do everything possible to help consumers.”

If you’ve ever applied for a mortgage before, you may dread hearing the words “loan application.” Mortgage applications can take a long time to fill out, particularly if you don’t have all the ancillary information you’ll need to finish the application within reach. 

Max Cash makes the process of securing financing as simple as it can for loan seekers. To get the ball rolling, Max Cash users will fill out a form for the type of loan or financial product they’re interested in. The company provides unique forms for the various loan products it can connect borrowers to. 

“Most of the loan forms are pretty short and are as straightforward as possible,” Amassiadis told us. “You can pretty much fill out any one of our forms within 30 seconds.”

Max Cash doesn’t perform any hard or soft credit inquiries without a consumer’s consent. Amassiadis said most lenders Max Cash partners with will eventually do a soft inquiry of a consumer’s credit. Some of its partners require hard inquiries, but that will typically happen further down the line when a consumer is securing a loan. 

I saw a film once about a girl who had to navigate an otherworldly maze to save her brother from the clutches of a treacherous ruler. I’ve never been in a maze quite like the one I saw depicted on the silver screen that day, but I have been stuck in the virtual maze of an automated voice service many times.

In an effort to cut costs, many companies prefer to have their customers interact with virtual answering services, or interactive voice response systems, rather than human employees. If you’re as tired as I am of dealing with those systems, you’ll find Max Cash’s approach to handling incoming calls refreshing. 

The company employs its own call center, which is open 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Amassiadis told us the call center is even open on Christmas.

“Our call center is one of the reasons we really stand out from the competition,” Amassiadis told us. “We call each and every lead that’s entered into our system, whether the individual comes to us through our website or through an outside source. There are other companies that are like us in this space that don’t even have a call center, and the customer journey there can get a little wonky.”

Max Cash’s call center representatives speak with consumers to learn about their borrowing needs so they can find a lender for them that matches their criteria. If a call center representative determines that a prospective borrower doesn’t have all the components they need for the loan they’re seeking, the call center representative will try to find a suitable replacement option for them. 

Amassiadis told us the company’s call center team also tries to prequalify people for loans and connect them to a loan specialist.

“One of the reasons our call center is so crucial is that they can put you on a better path than the one you came in looking for,” Amassiadis told us. “The goal for us is to get the user on the phone. Conversation rates are a lot higher when we can do a live call transfer to a lender instead of just passing the data over to them.”

Loans are an important tool you can use to buy big-ticket items today and pay for them over time. But shopping for loans can be challenging because it’s not something we do too often over the course of our lives. And when you consider the complexity of lending terminology and amortization schedules, you can see why people can get frustrated with the lending process.

Max Cash understands that loans can be intimidating to some people. By providing financial education, borrowers can learn more about lending products and find different ways to pay back loans. Amassiadis told us that Max Cash prioritizes transparent financial education and uncovering hidden loan details for users.

“Any question that a caller has for us, we’ll answer,” Amassiadis told us. “Even if we don’t have the answer for them right away, we’ll get the lender on the phone to give them the information they’re looking for. People value transparency, especially in the subprime space where everyone’s always worried that the loan isn’t going to work out.”

It’s hard to have a conversation about finances in 2024, when we published this article, without touching on the effects of inflation. Amassiadis told us inflation has caused people to have more interest in financial products.

“With inflation, things have really been getting tougher for everybody,” Amassiadis told us. “People are definitely looking for more financial help these days, and we’re here for them.”