Agreements
Four documents, in the order you meet them — and the important part, which is that only the first two are with us.
Spark Finance is not the lender. We arrange financing through the lenders we work with. The agreement that puts money in your account is between you and whichever of them funds you — not between you and us.
1. Our terms of business
Agreed when you create an account. It governs using this site and applying through us: what we do, what we do not do, and what we are responsible for. Read the terms.
2. Permission to take your file to lenders
Given on the first step of an application, where it says so in as many words: continuing authorises us to share that application and its documents with the lending partners who may fund it. That is the whole mechanism of a brokerage — one application reaching the lenders most likely to say yes, rather than you filling in eight of them.
It is recorded against that application, with the time it was given. A second application next year is a second permission, because it is a second set of documents going out.
3. The lender's agreement
Issued by the lender if your file is approved, and the one that matters most: the amount, the total you will repay, the payment and the schedule, what happens if a payment is missed, and whether you can settle early. It comes from them, you sign it with them, and you owe the money to them.
Before you sign anything, the figures should already be familiar — you will have seen the amount, the total payback, the payment and the number of payments on your own application first. Reading your offer explains each of them.
4. Security, where the product uses it
Some products are secured and some are not. Equipment financing is secured on the equipment; asset-based lending is registered against the receivables, inventory or plant it is advanced against; a term loan usually pledges nothing, though a personal guarantee from an owner is common. Which applies to you is on the product page and in the lender's agreement, and it is a fair question to ask before you get that far.
What we charge you
Applying is free and carries no obligation to take anything you are offered. If you are unsure what a fee on an agreement is for, or who it is payable to, ask before signing — call us and we will go through the document with you line by line.
This page describes the documents in plain language so you know what to expect. It is a summary, not legal advice, and it does not replace the documents themselves — where this page and an agreement differ, the agreement is what counts.