As a not-for-profit, community interest company, Fair for You is committed to making fair credit accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of their financial background.
To ensure fair use of our service, however, there are rules around how many loan products you can use at any one time. This is to ensure you can keep up with your repayments and that you’re not borrowing too much.
Here, we’ll explore our different types of loans, how much you’ll need to have paid off to be eligible for a new one, and when you can top-up your Iceland Food Club Card and Shopping Card.
Please note, Fair for You customers are required to not be in arrears, as well as fulfilling other criteria listed below, before being eligible for a new loan.
When are Fair for You customers eligible to apply for a new loan?
Fair for You customers need to have repaid a third (33.3%) of each of their loans before they become eligible to apply for another loan - with a maximum of three active loans (only one of these can be a card loan) at any time.
This means that, if you have two loans of £300, you’ll need to have paid £100 off each loan to be eligible for a new one.
If you only have a Food Club Card, then you will need to be up-to-date with all of your payments before you apply for a new loan. New Food Club Card customers (who have no existing Fair for You loans) need to have been with Fair for You for at least 60 days, before being eligible to apply for a new loan.
When are Good Payers Club members eligible for a new loan?
Fair for You customers are invited to join our Good Payers Club when they’re up-to-date with their payments and if they have been with us for more than six months or paid off their first loan.
If your first loan with us was the Food Club Card then you’ll need to have paid off your first loan balance and have been with us for more than six months to be eligible for the Good Payers Club.
Members of the Good Payers Club can access a wider range of products, including the latest tech, like phones, game consoles, TVs, and more. Good Payers Club members are also eligible for a Shopping Card (more on that later…).
Once you’re in the Good Payers Club, you only need to have paid a quarter (25%) of each of your loans to become eligible to apply for another loan (maximum three active loans - one of which can be a card loan).
As with the Food Club Card, Shopping Card users need to be up-to-date with all of their payments and not be in arrears to be eligible for a new loan.
When can you top-up your Food Club Card?
If you’ve kept up with your repayments and are a quarter repaid on your current Food Club loan balance, you can top-up your Food Club Card in line with the school holidays - the top-up windows for 2023 are as follows:
Easter Holiday: 27th March 2023 – 16th April 2023
May Half Term: 22nd May 2023 – 4th June 2023
Summer Holiday: 19th July 2023 – 3rd September 2023
October Half Term: 16th October 2023 – 5th November 2023
Christmas Holiday: 18th December 2023 – 7th January 2024
Follow us on our Facebook or Instagram pages to be reminded when the windows are approaching.
The balance limit on your Food Club Card is £100, so if you have £40 left on the card when the top-up window opens, you’ll be eligible to add another £60 credit.
When can you top-up your Shopping Card balance?
The Fair for You Shopping Card is only available to members of our Good Payers Club. This balance can be spent in several stores, including Iceland and The Food Warehouse, as well as Argos, Currys, Dunelm, Carpetright, Chemist Direct and Middletons.
Your Shopping Club Card can initially be topped-up with between £50 and £350 of credit.
Shopping Cards are not restricted to top-up windows, so they can be topped up as soon as you become eligible. To be eligible to top-up your Shopping Card, you’ll need to repay a quarter of your Shopping Card loan.
Shopping Cards are topped up in the same way as Food Club Cards - via a button on the customer dashboard.
If you have any more questions regarding how our loans, Food Club Card and Shopping Card products work, take a look at our FAQs section.
For more information on all things Fair for You and tips on how to save money, including Everything You Need to Know about the Iceland Food club Loan, the difference between responsible and irresponsible lending, Tackling the Cost of Living Crisis, and more, head to the Fair for You blog.
Check out our loan calculator to see what your repayment schedule would look like or, explore our wide range of products, like fridges, cookers, and washing machines from the Fair for You homepage.
*Please note we’ve used links to external websites. Although we make every effort to ensure these links are accurate, up to date and relevant, Fair for You Enterprise CIC cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers. Views expressed on external sites we link to are not necessarily those of Fair for You Enterprise CIC. If you come across any external links that don’t work, we would be grateful if you could report them to the web content team.
The content of this blog does not constitute personal financial advice, and the views expressed in it are those of the contributor or author, which may not necessarily represent or reflect the views expressed by Fair for You Enterprise CIC.