Payday loans are designed for the regular modern day employee who receives a salary at regular intervals each month. Such people get their pay deposited directly to their bank accounts. As with any other type of loan, such as fast loans or more traditional mortgages, there are certain basic requirements that need to be satisfied before an application is considered.

Proof of Employment and Salary

The most important requirement is proof of employment and salary. All lending companies need some form of assurance that the borrower is capable of paying off the loan, even companies that do not do credit checks or those that provide loans to people with bad credit. Those in the payday loans business use the proof of employment and the proof of salary to determine ability to pay. Some companies require a minimum monthly salary, say a third of the maximum amount that may be borrowed, before they approve a payday loan.

Bank Accounts and Bank Statements

These are used as additional proof of a person’s ability to pay. Most fast loan lending companies ask for statements that show that the account has been in use for at least two months. The bank account indicated is also where the lenders will deposit the money being borrowed.

Proof of Identity and Residence

The applicant should be a resident of the United Kingdom and be able to provide proof of such in the form of a driving license or passport. This is also used to ensure that the borrower is the person indicated in the proof of employment, and to serve as a sample of the borrower’s specimen signature. In the event that the borrower defaults on the loan and fails to pay it off, the lender will also have enough documentation to initiate court claims.

The Minimum Age Requirement

According to law, not just anybody can take out these fast loans. In fact, any company that sends material encouraging a person below the age of 18 to take out a loan is committing a criminal offence. Furthermore, although the law allows those between the ages of 14 and 18 to apply for a loan, it requires that an adult act as a guarantor.

Most lending companies, as a matter of principle, do not take borrowers below the age of 18 to court. People below this age are not generally held responsible for the contracts they enter into. Thus the majority of lenders set the minimum age requirement for their applicants at 18.

Expedited Processing

There are forms to fill out and in most cases there are also documents to submit to the lender. The application is then processed and evaluated. Traditional loans require a lot of paperwork and considerable processing time in order to determine the applicant’s eligibility. The large amount of money being lent leads the lender to carry out a credit check and to carefully assess the borrower’s capacity to pay.

Payday loans, on the other hand, are designed to meet the borrower’s immediate financial needs, so the process is much shorter — generally a day or two. Most of the time, any delay in the process is caused by the time it takes the borrower to fax over the few documents being requested. Companies providing these fast loans often go a step further in shortening the process by foregoing the faxing part and by using the data found in the client’s completed online loan application form.