This Member Agreement (together with the documents referred to in it) tells you the terms on which you may make use of our site located at www.quakle.co.uk (our “Social Lending Site”).

1. About us

1.1 We are registered in England and Wales under company number 6515299 and have our registered office at 10 Dominion Street, London EC2M 2EE.

1.2 We are regulated by the Office of Fair Trading and the holder of Consumer Credit Licence number 624255.

2. Accessing our social lending site and your Quakle Account

2.1 To use our Social Lending Site, you must register with us. To register with us, you must:

• be an individual who is acting in a personal capacity and not for a business;
• be 18 years of age or older;
• be a UK resident;
• have a bank account in the UK in your own name (your “Bank Account”).

2.2 If you register with us, you must provide true and accurate information about yourself and your Bank Account. Should the registration information provided prove false or misleading, we may suspend or terminate your account.

2.3 To register, you must select a username (“ID”) and a password that will allow you to access your account (via our Social Lending Site) and update your profile information. You authorise us to act on instructions received under your ID and password. You are responsible for keeping your ID, password, and other account information confidential and are solely responsible for any and all use of your account and for all transactions and other activities that occur under your ID and password.

2.4 Following registration, you will become a Quakle member (“Quakle Member”) and we will set-up and grant you access to your online Quakle account which shows your activities and transactions on our Social Lending Site including the details of your loans (your “Quakle Account”).

2.5 You can access your Quakle Account using your ID and password. If your Quakle account remains unused for more than 2 years, we may close your Quakle Account and return any sums held in your Quakle Account to your Bank Account.

2.6 You must not disclose your ID and password to any third party. We may refuse to act on any instruction or suspend or disable access to your Quakle Account or password if, in our reasonable opinion, your Quakle Account information has been compromised. You must tell us immediately if you suspect any unauthorised use of your Quakle Account or access to your password.

2.7 As part of the registration process, we may carry out certain checks including identity checks.

2.8 Although we use our reasonable efforts to make our Social Lending Site available at all times, we may suspend access to our Social Lending Site without notice at any time for technical reasons or to carry out routine or emergency maintenance. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our Social Lending Site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

3. Our social lending site – Key elements

3.1 The purpose of our Social Lending Site is to introduce Quakle Members who wish to lend money (“Lenders”) to other Quakle Members who wish to borrow money (“Borrowers”).

3.2 Borrowers are automatically rated through the Quakle rating system (the “Quakle Rating System”) based on their activities on Quakle. This rating bears no connection to the Quakle Borrower’s actual financial situation, ability to repay a Loan or credit rating in real life.

3.3 Our Social Lending Site allows Borrowers to list a request for sums of money that they wish to borrow (a “Borrowing Request”). The Borrowing Request will include the interest rate at which the Borrower is prepared to borrow and the repayment period (the “Borrowing Criteria”). Lenders are then able to make offers to lend an amount of money to the Borrower based on the Borrowing Criteria (the “Loan Offer”). If the Borrower accepts a Loan Offer, the Borrower and the Lender will enter into a loan contract on the basis of our standard form loan terms (a “Loan Contract”). You should review our standard form loan terms before making a Loan Offer as once the Borrower accepts the Loan Offer, the Loan Contract will automatically include our standard form loan terms.

3.4 Following the Lender and the Borrower entering into a Loan Contract, we will transfer the amount set out in the Loan Contract (the “Loan”) from the Lender’s Quakle Account to the Borrower’s Bank Account. We will update the Borrower’s and Lender’s Quakle Account to reflect the Loan Contract.

3.5 A Borrower may only enter into one Loan Contract at any given time and will not be permitted to make a Borrowing Request until a Loan has been repaid.

3.6 In order to repay the Loan, the Borrower must set up a direct debit or standing order from the Borrower’s Bank Account to the bank account operated by Quakle on behalf of Quakle Members in order to operate our Social Lending Site (the “Quakle Members Account”).

3.7 We are not a party to the Loan Contract. The Loan Contract is made solely between the Borrower and the Lender and we are not responsible in any way for the defaults of the Lender or the Borrower.

3.8 If a Borrower fails to make a payment due under the Loan Contract, we will endeavour to contact the Borrower to remind the Borrower to make payment. If, after 10 days of the date for payment, the payment still remains outstanding, we will pass the Borrower’s contact details to our collection agency (the “Collection Agency”) and they will seek to obtain payment from the Borrower.

3.9 If, after 90 days of the date for payment, the Collection Agency is unable to obtain payment, the Collection Agency will offer to buy the Loan Contract from the Lender at an agreed price or will proceed to a standard recovery procedure.

4. Lenders

4.1 You can transfer funds into your Quakle Account by debit card or direct credit transfer from your Bank Account. You must ensure that your Quakle Account has sufficient funds to make a Loan Offer and you must not make a Loan Offer unless you have sufficient funds in your Quakle Account.

4.2 Any sums showing in your Quakle account are held by us on trust for you in our Quakle Members Account.

4.3 You may transfer funds from your Quakle Account to your Bank Account up to the amount showing as available for transfer in your Quakle Account which will not include any sums that have been reserved in your Quakle Account where you have made a Loan Offer. The minimum withdrawal is £100.

4.5 By making a Loan Offer, you are acknowledging and agreeing that:

• you are offering to enter into a Loan Contract with the Borrower who made the Borrowing Request on the terms of your Loan Offer;
• you are relying solely on your own judgment as to whether to make the Loan Offer to the Borrower and whether the Borrower is able to repay the Loan;
• you will be solely responsible for any actions or decisions you take in making a Loan Offer whether based on Borrower Rating or any other information available through our Social Lending Site;
• we carry out credit checks on the Borrower. This does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation or endorsement by us, and is not intended to be relied upon by you as the sole basis for making (or refraining from making) any specific decision;

4.6 If you are unsure about the status of a Borrower and his ability to repay a loan, you should make your own further enquiries to satisfy your concerns or not make a Loan Offer.

4.7 We will not be responsible to you for any decisions or actions you take in making a Loan Offer or entering into a Loan Offer.

4.8 Once you make a Loan Offer, an amount corresponding to the Loan Offer will be reserved in your Quakle Account.

4.9 Once the Borrower accepts a Loan Offer and you and the Borrower have entered into a Loan Contract, we will:

• deduct the Loan from your Quakle Account and transfer it to the Borrower’s Bank Account;.
• credit your Quakle Account with any repayments received from the Borrower; and you authorise us to carry out these transactions.

4.10 In event that the Borrower misses a payment under the Loan Contract, we will

• email the Borrower and remind the Borrower to make the payment immediately;
• sub-contract the collection of the payment and any other outstanding payments to the Collection Agency if, after 10 days of the date for payment, the payment still remains outstanding.

4.11 If the collection of any payments is passed to the Borrower under 4.9.2, the Collection Agency may negotiate a revised payment schedule with the Borrower and you authorize the Collection Agency to carry out such negotiations.

4.12 If the Collection Agency is unable to collect the payment and the payment remains outstanding for a period of 90 days, we will contact you and recommend that you agree to transfer the account to the Collection Agency for further attempts to obtain payment from the borrower or to transfer the debt to the Collection Agency and will specify the price the Collection Agency is willing to pay you in return for transferring the debt. If you are unhappy with this price, you may refuse to transfer the debt to the Collection Agency or negotiate a price direct with the Collection Agency. If you agree to transfer the debt to the Collection Agency, you agree to take all actions necessary to transfer the debt to the Collection Agency including transferring the Loan Contract. If you do not wish to transfer the debt to the Collection Agency, you are free to pursue the Borrower as you see fit. Any fee paid by us on your behalf to initiate the debt collection process will be charged back to you and deducted directly from the payment as received.

4.13 For a limited time only lenders that complete the registration process to create a lender account and pass the identity verification check are entitled to a £30 credit in their Quakle Account. Quakle reserves the right to withdraw this offer at any time, but not before at least 100 new lenders have registered. This credit cannot be withdrawn without any prior credit from you into your Quakle Account in order to reach the required minimum withdrawal set out in section 4.3.

5. Borrowers

5.1 We provide you with a loan affordability calculator which you must complete accurately before requesting a loan. The amount given to you by this loan affordability calculator – the disposable monthly income – limits your capacity to borrow at Quakle. You must not give misleading or false information in order to be granted a greater borrowing capacity.

5.2 To borrow through our Social Lending Site, you need to post a Borrowing Request specifying your Borrowing Criteria. In response, Lenders are able to make Loan Offers.

5.3 By posting a Borrowing Request you authorise us to make checks such as assessing your Borrowing Request for credit and verifying identities to prevent and detect crime and money laundering. Quakle will check the following records about you and others:

• our own;
• those at Credit Reference Agencies (‘CRAs’). When CRAs receive a search from us they will place a search footprint on your credit file that may be seen by other lenders. They supply to us both public and shared credit and fraud prevention information;
• those at fraud prevention agencies (‘FPAs’).

We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies.

To contact the CRAs directly, please use the following contact details:

CallCredit, Consumer Services Team, PO Box 491, Leeds, LS3 1WZ or call 0870 0601414
Equifax PLC, Credit File Advice Centre, PO Box 3001, Bradford, BD1 5US or call 0870 010 0583 or log on to www.myequifax.co.uk
Experian, Consumer Help Service, PO Box 8000, Nottingham NG80 7WF or call 0844 4818000 or log on to www.experian.co.uk.

5.4 Your data may also be used for other purposes for which you give your specific permission or, in very limited circumstances, when required by law or where permitted under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.

5.5 You will be credit checked within our credit grade categories every time you post a Borrowing Request, provided that more than 30 calendar days have elapsed since your previous Borrowing Request. We may also make periodic searches at CRAs and FPAs to manage your account with us. If after appropriate reviewing from us it appears that you do not meet the minimum creditworthiness requirements, your Borrowing Request will be cancelled. The credit check result will show in the details of your Borrowing Request.

5.6 Information on applications will be sent to CRAs and will be recorded by them. Where you borrow from our Lenders, we will give details of your accounts and how you manage it to CRAs. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, CRAs will record the outstanding debt. This information may be supplied to other organisations by CRAs and FPAs to perform similar checks and to trace your whereabouts and recover debts that you owe. Records remain on file for six years after they are closed, whether settled by you or defaulted.

5.7 If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect or identify fraud we will record this and may also pass this information to FPAs and other organisations involved in crime and fraud prevention.

5.8 If there are enough Loan Offers to meet the amount you have requested to borrow in your Borrowing Request, you can accept the Loan Offers and you and the Lender will enter into a Loan Contract. Once you accept a Loan Offer, please note that you are entering into a binding Loan Contract.

5.9 You may only enter into one Loan Contract at any given time and you will not be permitted to make a Borrowing Request until the Loan has been repaid.

5.10 If there are not enough Loan Offers to meet the amount you have requested to borrow in your Borrowing Request, we will remove your Borrowing Request from our Social Lending Site once the period for making Loan Offers has ended.

5.11 When you accept a Loan Offer, you must set up a standing order from your Bank Account to the Quakle Members Account to reflect the repayments and repayment period stated in Loan Offer.

5.12 Once you accept a Loan Offer and you and the Lender have entered into a Loan Contract, we will credit your Bank Account with the amount of the Loan less our fee as due to us pursuant to paragraph 7.

5.13 If you want to repay the Loan early, you may do so as set out in the Loan Contract. For further assistance with this, you may contact us at [email protected]

5.14 We will show any payments you make and your outstanding balances in your Quakle Account.

5.15 If your circumstances change or you are having difficulty repaying your Loan, you should tell us immediately.

5.16 If you miss a payment under the Loan Contract, we will email you and remind you to make the payment immediately. You will be liable for any cost incurred during the debt collection process and such costs shall add up to the due amount. If we have not heard from you after 10 days of the payment date, then we will pass your contact details and account information to the Collection Agency. The Collection Agency will seek collection of the outstanding payment from you and may negotiate a revised payment schedule with you.

5.17 If the payment continues to remain outstanding either the Collection Agency or the Lender may take action against you which could have serious consequences on your ability to obtain credit in the future.

6. User Groups

6.1 User groups may be formed by Quakle Members with similar interests (a “User Group”) for the purpose of lending to, or borrowing money from, other Quakle Members either in the User Group or otherwise.

6.2 A User Group must establish the criteria that need to be satisfied in order for a Quakle Member to join the User Group (the “User Group Membership Criteria”). The User Group Membership Criteria must be lawful and should not discriminatory in nature on the grounds of race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.

6.3 We may refuse to allow any User Groups that are either unlawful or discriminate against other Quakle Members based on the grounds of race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.

6.4 The founder of a User Group will be the leader (“User Group Leader”) unless he or she decides otherwise. The Group Leader has the discretion to accept or reject the application of a Quakle Member to join the User Group based on the User Group Membership Criteria. A User Group Leader must exercise this discretion fairly and lawfully and must only accept or reject applications solely in accordance with the User Group Membership Criteria.

6.5 A Borrower may be rated through the Quakle Rating System based on their User Group activities. This rating bears no connection to the Borrower’s actual financial situation, ability to repay a Loan or credit rating in real life.

7. Our fee

7.1 We will charge Borrowers £100 (our “Fee”) for each loan taken. Our Fee is automatically added to the amount being requested to be borrowed and is included in the Borrowing Request.

7.2 Following the Lender and the Borrower entering into a Loan Contract and at the time that we credit the Borrower’s Quakle Account with the amount of the Loan, we will deduct our Fee.

7.3 If we are required to transmit a Borrower’s details to the Collection Agency, we will charge a fee of £20 to such Borrower.

7.4 If the Collection Agency is required to provide debt collection services in the event that a Borrowers fails to make a payment, the Collection Agency will charge a fee to such Borrower based on the debt collection fee schedule.

8. Acceptable use and content standards

8.1 You may use our Social Lending Site only for lawful purposes.

8.2 You may not use our Social Lending Site:

• in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
• in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
• in any way to manipulate or distort, or undermine the integrity and accuracy of, the Borrowers Ratings;
• for your any business purpose;
• to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards (see below);
• to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material;
• to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

8.3 You also agree not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:

• any part of our Social Lending Site;
• any equipment or network on which our Social Lending Site is stored;
• any software used in the provision of our Social Lending Site; or
• any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

9. User content standards

9.1 These content standards apply to any and all material you post on the Social Lending Site including any comments, discussions, information, reviews or Borrowers Ratings (“Member Content”) and your use of the Social Lending Site.

9.2 You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter.

9.3 Member Content must:

• be accurate (where they state facts);
• be genuinely held (where they state opinions);
• comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

9.4 Member Content must not:

• contain any material which tortious (including defamatory of any person), obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
• promote sexually explicit material, violence, promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
• infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
• be likely to deceive any person or made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence or promote any illegal activity;
• be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety or be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
• be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case;
• advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

10. Suspension and termination

10.1 Failure to comply with the acceptable use or content standards in this Member Agreement constitutes a serious breach of the Member Agreement upon which you are permitted to use our Social Lending Site, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

• immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your Quakle Account and your right to use our Social Lending Site;
• immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our Social Lending Site;
• issue of a warning to you;
• legal action against you including proceedings for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
• disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities or third party complainants as we reasonably feel is necessary or required to disclose;
• disclosure of your identity to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our Social Lending Site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, right to privacy or other legal rights.

10.2 The responses described in this clause are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

11. Member content licence

11.1 By contributing or submitting Member Content to our Social Lending Site, you grant to us a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, transferable right and licence to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from (including, without limitations, translations) and sell and distribute the User Content (in whole or in part) and incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology.

11.2 You agree to waive any moral rights you have in the Member Content (including the right to be identified as the author) so that we may adapt and exploit the Member Content freely and without restriction.

11.3 You acknowledge that the Member Content is free from any obligation of confidence or similar restriction.

12. Limitations on our site

12.1 Due to inherent technical and operational limitations of the Internet and the fact that we do not provide the networks that are used in accessing our Social Lending Site, we cannot guarantee secure, uninterrupted or error free access to our Social Lending Site.

12.2 We may from time to time suspend our Social Lending Site in order to carry out routine and emergency work to our Social Lending Site.

12.3 If we cannot provide our Social Lending Site to you because of something beyond our reasonable control (such as acts of God, terrorism, unavailability of the Internet and strikes), we shall not be liable to you. In this case, we will do everything we reasonably can to provide our Social Lending Site as soon as possible.

13. Reliance on site information

13.1 We make all reasonable efforts to ensure that information provided by us in connection with our Social Lending Site is accurate. However, we do not verify the Member Content and any third party content available through our Social Lending Site (which is identified as having been provided by a third party) (“Third Party Content”).

13.2 You shall be solely responsible for any actions or decisions you take based on the Member Content and any Third Party Content. If you are concerned about the accuracy of this content, you should make your own further enquiries.

13.3 THE MEMBER CONTENT AND THIRD PARTY CONTENT ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. ACCORDINGLY, WE THEREFORE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY (WHETHER ARISING IN CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) AND RESPONSIBILITY ARISING FROM ANY RELIANCE PLACED BY YOU ON THE MEMBER CONTENT AND OTHER THIRD PARTY MATERIALS AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR SOCIAL LENDING SITE.

13.4 Nothing in this paragraph excludes or limits our liability to you where we are negligent in providing inaccurate information (which excludes the Member Content and Third Party Content) to you and you suffer loss or damage (although we do limit our liability to you in accordance with paragraph 15).

14. Our responsability for loan contracts

14.1 We are not a party to the Loan Contract. The Loan Contract is made solely between the Borrower and the Lender and we are not responsible in any way for the defaults of the Lender or the Borrower.

14.2 ACCORDINGLY, WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) FOR THE ACTS OR THE OMISSIONS OF THE LENDER OR THE BORROWER IN PERFORMING OR FAILING TO PERFORM THE LOAN CONTRACT.

14.3 Nothing in this paragraph excludes or limits our liability to you where we are negligent in carrying out any actions you have authorised us to carry out in connection with the administration of the Loan Contract and you have suffered loss or damage (although we do limit our liability to you in accordance with paragraph 15).

15. Our responsibility

15.1 In the event that we are negligent or in breach of this Member Agreement and you suffer loss as a result, our entire liability to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise arising in connection with our Social Lending Site shall be limited to the Fee earned by us in connection with the Loan Contract in respect of which the liability arises.

15.2 We do not limit our liability if you die or are injured as a result of our negligence or you suffer loss as a consequence of any fraud committed by us.

16. Copyright and Trademark information

16.1 All copyright and any other intellectual property rights in the site design, text, graphics, interfaces, content and material included on our Social Lending Site excluding Member Content or Third Parties Content are owned by us and our licensors (our “Content”). You may make use of our Content solely for the purpose of using our Social Lending Site and you must not use our Content for any commercial purpose.

16.2 Quakle^TM is the proprietary trade mark of Quakle Limited. You may not use any of our brands, logos or trade marks without our prior written consent.

17. Ending the member agreement

17.1 You may end this Member Agreement at any time by contacting us at [email protected] as long as you have repaid all your Loan Contracts in full.

17.2 We may end this Member Agreement by telling you in writing if:

• you fail in any important way to do what you agree to do in this Member Agreement and do not sort out the problem within seven days of us telling you about it;
• the information you have given us is in any important way not correct or not complete or is fraudulent;
• you have a bankruptcy petition issued against you or you enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement; or
• you die.

17.3 In the event that this Agreement ends:

• your right to use our Social Lending Site will end and you will not be able to access your Quakle Account;
• we will transfer to your Bank Account any sums credited to you Quakle Account.

17.4 The ending of this Agreement does not affect your obligation to repay any Loans under your Loan Agreements.

17.5 We may retain a copy of any personal information we hold about you in accordance with our privacy policy.

18. Changes to the member agreement

18.1 We may revise the Member Agreement from time to time to reflect changes in our Social Lending Site or changes in applicable laws, rules and guidance.

18.2 Before we make the change, we will give you reasonable notice about the changes. If you continue using our Social Lending Site after we make the changes, then you are agreeing to the changes and they are binding on you.

19. Complaints

19.1 If you wish to complain about any use of our Social Lending Site, please contact us at: [email protected]

19.2 We aim to deal with your complaints promptly and in accordance with our complaints policy in force from time to time.

20. Third-party sites

20.1 Our Social Lending Site may include links to websites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any third party website. Accordingly, you use these websites at your own risk and we accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. You should contact the site administrator or Webmaster for those third-party sites if you have any concerns regarding such links or the use of these websites. Your use of those third-party sites is subject to any terms of use and privacy policies of each site.

21. Information about you and your visits to our site

21.1 We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our Social Lending Site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

22. Dispute resolution

22.1 We will do our best to resolve any problems or issues that you may have with us or our Social Lending Site in a satisfactory manner and in accordance with our complaints policy. If, however, we are unable to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution, we will discuss and agree the most appropriate way to resolve our dispute including mediation, arbitration or by commencing legal proceedings in a court of law.

23. Governing law

23.1 This Member Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales.

24. Other terms

24.1 We intend to rely on this Member Agreement as setting out the written terms relating to the provision of our Social Lending Site to you.

24.2 If any part of this User Agreement shall be unlawful or unenforceable for any reason, this shall not be affect the remainder of this Member Agreement.

24.3 In the event that we are acquired by, or merge with, a third party, we may transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this Member Agreement to that third party or the newly merged entity.

24.4 We may also transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this Member Agreement in the event of a corporate group re-organisation to any member within our group of companies as long as that member has sufficient assets to meet the liabilities under this Member Agreement.