Kanda was started by an electrician from Worcestershire named Richard. He was frustrated to quote for work only to find out that customers didn’t have any way to pay. He didn’t just want more work — he wanted better work — and quality customers. We help hundreds of tradespeople to find better work and offer their customers finance.

Kanda provides a regulated financial platform for businesses to offer their end users finance, they can choose to offer finance across a selection of rates and products that best fit their needs and Kanda handles all of their regulatory compliance leaving them to focus on growing their business.

Howdens have partnered with Kanda to provide a bespoke software solution that allows Howdens’ end users to buy their goods via finance without impacting Howdens trade-first business model

The Kanda x Howdens pilot will launch with one finance option - 12.9% APR from 24-120 months (loans of £7.5k and above are eligible to go to 180 months). This is a fixed rate, meaning that all end users will be offered 12.9% APR and it is not impacted by an individual’s credit score.

If an end user is declined for the 12.9% APR they may be offered a second line interest rate of 16.9% APR without the need for reapplying. Please note, not all customers will be offered a second line interest rate if declined.

If the end user is interested in finance please invite them to complete a credit introduction - they will be asked to provide some personal information (taking around 5 minutes) and we will inform them if they are likely to be accepted or declined.

After the usual kitchen design process, if the end user would like to pay with finance, you will send their order details to their builder to confirm the details are correct. The end user will then complete a full credit application - confirming that their pre-application details are correct and providing bank details for direct debit.

Once accepted and the goods have been delivered, the end user's repayments will begin 30 days from that point.

In general an end user can complete our pre-application/application process in 5 minutes - it’s that simple. They will then receive a decision from the lender instantly in most cases, though some cases may be referred and can take a longer amount of time as the end user needs to provide supporting documents for their application.

A finance application can result in three different end statuses:

Accepted - The end user’s application has been successful and the transaction can proceed

Referred - The lender can’t reach a final decision without further supporting evidence, for example payslips to prove income

Declined - The end user’s application has been unsuccessful and the transaction can not proceed, the end user should consider alternative payment options

The majority of application information is collected during the credit introduction (personal details, address history, employment history and income/expenditure). In the full application, the end user will confirm that the details from the pre-app remain correct, confirm Kanda terms and conditions, and sign their loan documents with the lender.

A referred loan means that the lender requires more information from the end user to support the application, this will typically relate to identity, income and homeownership. Therefore typical supporting documents include proof of ID (driving license or passport); proof of income (last 3 months bank statements); and proof of home ownership (household bill in the applicants name).

During the pre-application only a soft credit check is performed to establish the end user’s likelihood of acceptance, this will not leave a permanent mark on their credit file. However when a pre-application is converted into a full application, the lender will conduct a hard credit check as with any finance application and this will leave a record on the end user’s credit file.

If the end user is declined you will be notified via email and the end user will have to find an alternative option to pay for their order. Should the end user feel that they were incorrectly declined for finance, they can contact the lender directly using the contact details available during the application process in order to challenge the decision.

In the instance where the tradesperson fitting the kitchen changes, the end user will need to complete a new application in order for you to input the new tradesperson’s details when you convert the introduction into a job. Please cancel down the original application or ask for Kanda’s help to do so if required.

If design changes and therefore price changes occur before the end user has completed the full application, then the job price can be amended before being resent. You can do this by using the ‘Amend Job Details’ function - this will automatically archive the old application and copy across the relevant details for you to amend before sending back out to the end user.

If design changes and therefore price changes occur after the end user has completed the full application, then a new application will need to be completed reflecting the change in value. Please contact Kanda to cancel down the original application.