When an applicant applies for a loan, they are asked to select the reason or purpose for their application. The purpose is chosen from a list of possible reasons.
In some cases, applicants can apply for a loan product for any purpose. For example, a savings-based loan may be used for any reason the applicant chooses. In other cases, a product may be intended for a specific purpose, such as a Holiday Loan, Christmas Loan, or Debt Consolidation Loan.
Applicants may also wish to apply for a loan that serves more than one purpose. For example, someone might apply for a larger loan to pay a small bill and consolidate some debts with the remainder.
Controlling loan purposes in a product
In the Product details section of a loan product’s settings, you can control:
Which purposes are available for applicants to select; and
Whether applicants can choose a single purpose or multiple purposes.
These settings allow you to tailor each product to suit its intended use and ensure applicants only see relevant loan purposes.
Changes to loan purpose settings will only apply to new applications. Any applications already submitted will retain the purposes selected at the time of application.
Loan purpose selection
The Loan purpose selection setting determines whether applicants can choose just one or multiple purposes when applying for a loan under this product.
Single – The applicant can choose one purpose only.
Multiple – The applicant can choose more than one purpose, selecting all that apply from the available list.
When reviewing applications in the dashboard, the first purpose selected by the applicant will appear as the primary purpose. Any further reasons for borrowing selected by the applicant will appear as secondary purposes. They are displayed in a list format beneath the primary purpose:
Loan purposes available
The Loan purpose setting controls which purposes are shown to applicants applying for this product. You can configure this in three ways:
All: All purposes available at your organisation level are shown.
Exclude: You can select specific purposes to exclude from this product. All other purposes remain available.
Include: You can select specific purposes to include. Only these purposes will be available to applicants.
Example
If your organisation offers purposes such as Debt consolidation, Holiday, Home improvements, and Christmas expenses, you might configure your products as follows:
Holiday Loan
Loan purpose selection: Single
Loan purpose: Include → Holiday Costs
Personal Loan
Loan purpose selection: Multiple
Loan purpose: Exclude → Holiday Costs
This configuration ensures applicants only see relevant purposes when applying for a particular loan product.
Using the Exclude / Include function
When you select either the Exclude or Include option for Loan purpose, a drop-down multi-select menu will appear. This menu allows you to select all the loan purposes that you want to exclude or include for the product.
To add a purpose:
Click on the drop-down menu.
Find the purpose you wish to select and click it.
The purpose will be added as a list item in the Loan purposes box.
To add another purpose, repeat the steps above.
To remove a purpose:
Deselect it in the drop-down menu, or
Click the × on its list item in the Loan purposes box.
When applicants select “Other” as the loan purpose
If an applicant selects Other as the reason for their loan, a free text field will appear. This allows the applicant to describe what the loan is for in their own words.
When Multiple purposes are allowed, the applicant can select Other more than once, providing several free text responses.
For example, an applicant might apply for a loan to cover expenses associated with attending the Champions League Final. They could:
Select Other and specify Champions League Final
Select Other again and specify Food
Select Other again and specify Hotel
Each response will appear as a separate entry, allowing you to see all the reasons the applicant has provided.
For more information on configuring loan products, see Loan products