Dubai expats seeking UK financial solutions
Expats, who used to enjoy a good living in Dubai, are returning home with absolutely nothing, and when they get back to the UK, they find there is little help available from credit-crunched banks. Getting a personal loan from a high street bank is out of the question, so increasing numbers are looking to alternative sources of finance, such as a pawnbroker, in order to raise an urgently needed personal loan.
Against this background, online collateral loan providers like Borro.com are reporting a marked increase in those seeking a personal loan secured against valuables such as gold watches, jewellery, art and antiques.
Very often, these personal assets are all that can be exported from countries like the UAE, which is reported to be taking an increasingly hard line with cash-strapped expats who have fallen on hard times.
While the official media continues to promote the glowing economy of the UAE, some items manage to slip through the net. The Khaleej Times recently ran a story about scores of expats who, in the wake of recent job cuts in Dubai, have been dumping their cars at the airport, and flying back home in order to escape from mounting bank overdrafts, credit card debts and other financial liabilities.
Reliable sources are quoted as saying that expat debtors are blacklisted by the authorities, and may not be allowed to leave the country until they have paid off their debts. Then, when they finally get back home, they quickly find that the prospect of raising a personal loan from a UK high-street bank is absolute zero.
While rates for a secured loan from traditional sources such as banks and building societies have gone through the roof, online pawnbrokers like Borro.com are continuing to maintain the supply of fast cash at low rates.
But why is easy cash available in the form of a low interest rate loan from short term loan providers like Borro? This is because a secured loan backed by pledging personal valuables is the lowest risk and therefore the lowest cost method of arranging a cheap, affordable, no risk loan - for both the borrower and the lender.
It’s no surprise therefore, that returning expats from Dubai, Cyprus and the Costa del Sol, are approaching online pawn loan providers such as Borro.com in order to arrange a much needed personal loan.
