Nick Goraczkowski, President, iLending

Could you give us a little bit of an introduction to the company?

iLending started in 2006. We originally started as a vehicle purchase program for employees, where they could buy their own company vehicles back. Then, the economy changed a little bit, and employers started keeping their vehicles rather than offering them back as an employee benefit. That’s when we shifted to the automotive refinance space, and that was about 2011 or 2012. That’s when the rates kind of started changing, and we dove into the refinance market. With the credit unions back, they started doing more of the refinance market than a lot of the lenders. And then, the banks were doing such volume nationwide that we were able to get better rates for consumers than they were able to get themselves if they were to walk into their local bank. We could negotiate better volume discounts on interest rates than they could get themselves.

We went from doing just a couple of 100 loans a month to hitting close to 4,000 loans a month nationwide. So, we helped 15,000 families last year, which is pretty neat. We’re actually able to help families. Everybody leaves us better than they found us, which is a pretty neat way to make a living. We’re not selling widgets and useless things for folks. 

Everyone leaves us better than they found us, so that’s a pretty neat mantra for us. We’re saving everybody $150 a month on average right now at 5% interest rates. It’s just a pretty neat way to do things. We’re able to help people in all 50 States. We might be able to have someone in California set up with a loan for a bank or credit union in Florida that they never knew existed before. We’ve helped people put food on the table, and we have a lot of different stories.

What would you say are the keys to the company’s success, especially in the last five years?

Our willingness to adapt has been huge, as has transparency. Covid opened up a lot of doors as many people saw interest rates go down. Like in the mortgage industry, you saw it in this industry where a lot of people said, “Hey, there’s an easy buck to be made.” So, there’s a lot of folks who jumped in, and they said, “Hey, let’s take advantage of these interest rates. Let’s jump in, and let’s just refinance cars and refinance homes.” A lot of people enter these industries. Unfortunately, a lot of people jumped in with the wrong intentions. And that’s why a lot of people are not around anymore.

So, we were able to adapt. We were able to learn not only through technology but also to do things the right way. That’s why we were the originals who stayed around. We were able to learn through technology. We’re able to grow through fintech. We were able to grow our systems; we were able to adapt.

We build our own systems internally. Many folks out there use companies like Salesforce or have built other systems. We built ours from the ground up for this industry, so we’ve been able to control our entire environment. That’s using our own type of AI systems for titling, developing, and supporting our partners. That has been a big piece that we’ve felt is developing and growing on a partnership basis.

That’s been a failure for a lot of folks in our industry. They’ve chased the dollar, and they’ve not delivered on promises to partners and clients. This is something I’ve never allowed anybody to do. Delivering to our partners is first and foremost. You know, it’s not about spreading your wings as far as you can go. It’s about working with the right partners. It’s about delivering to those partners and growing together, delivering, and building with your team. We’ve had the same core leadership team for years here, and we continue to do that.

Understood. And you mentioned 15,000 families you helped last year. Obviously, you have them lower their car payments every month. And out of those 15,000 families, is there any case specifically that comes to mind? 

The one that jumps to mind is a young single mom from Florida. Florida has no user limit, meaning that there’s no cap on interest rates. Many companies base themselves in Florida because they can charge people what they want to charge. There was a lady down there, and she was north of 115 interest rate on her car loan. She had gotten a title, and she had paid off the vehicle. She just needed some money as she had some family stuff that came up. She needed some cash, so she went into a title loan company and took out a loan for about $8,000 against her vehicle. Her payments were over $1,200 a month. I was actually talking to my son, and he said, “Why would someone do that? Why would they pay $1,200 a month for a car that they already own? And you had to explain them. Your life comes up, and you sometimes do what you have to do.

But she came to see us. She was obviously in a position to take that loan out, but a $1,200 payment didn’t help her cause. We were able to drop her down to about $250 a month. We saved her $1,000 a month. To a single mom, that was a life changer. I mean, that’s a direct impact that’s changing some of the stars for her a little bit, and that was kind of a neat scenario.

Not only did we drop her $1,000 a month, we were able to give her a vehicle service plan for any sort of breakdown. We gave her a little bit of cash out into her pocket to

put some groceries on the table and give her a couple of months off with no payment. So, she was able to catch up on some other bills and get some Christmas money in her pocket. It was just a neat overall scenario.

That’s incredible. Also, I would like to ask you about your message for those lending partners that you have.

Good question. It is a partnership. We do believe that. One thing we have are monthly meetings with all of our partners. We meet with everybody once a month to review the results. It’s an ever-growing partnership. How do we grow together? What works? What didn’t work? We want to spend our dollars and your dollars the right way. I truly see every relationship as a partnership. It’s not just a business partnership; it’s a lifelong relationship. It’s a partnership in the best sense of the word. 

I want to grow our businesses together because without going together, neither one of us has a future. I mean, let’s grow in this new environment together. There are a lot of unknowns in this economy. Who knows what’s going to happen with the Feds? Who knows what’s going to happen in the elections this year? There are so many unknowns out there. The only thing that we can know is how we treat our partnerships, and it’s a trust thing. You’ve got to trust who you’re working with, and the best way to do this is through open communication. And that’s the one thing that we always have, which is just that transparency. How do we get better together? How do we grow together? I care about your business. I want you to care about mine.

That’s why we have those monthly business meetings together. I want you to see what we did with the lead you sent. I want to see what happened to the loans I sent you. What loans work, and what loans don’t? I don’t want to send you loans that don’t perform. Show me the stuff that you like. I don’t waste your money. Let’s work it both ways. I don’t know if that answers your question, but it’s really a transparency thing.

What would be your message to consumers? Could you explain your services a little bit more to potential customers who might consider them? 

We’ve been spending a lot of time reducing touchpoints and trying to make an easy system even easier. A lot of folks, when they hear about a refinance, they immediately go back to the idea of a mortgage. It’s so much paperwork! There’s so much work, and I don’t want to do it. We can really refinance your car in a matter of days with a couple of phone calls. If you’re someone who doesn’t want to talk to anybody, we can really eliminate a lot of that after a few verifications. Our goal is to have a fully online digital experience for consumers by the end of this year.

We want to be one of the first to market where someone can take it end-to-end online, from an application to document signing, and not have to talk to anybody. So, we’re investing a lot right now in developing that, from an application to booking your vehicle to verifying your income. Everything is in one digital service, which we’re going to share with our partners so we can embed it in their systems. 

For the younger folks who don’t want to be on the phone, we’ve added many texting options. You could actually do some stuff via your cell phone. Now, sitting on your couch, you will be able to refinance your car while you’re watching X files or whatever your show choices are. Some people just want to be on the phone, so we’ve got people who are always available on the phone now, too. So it’s really an easy process.

And for my last question, what is your vision for iLending for the next 3 to 5 years?

We’re in a growth mode; we want to expand. We’re some of the pioneers of the auto finance industry, and we really want to expand in some other verticals. We need to get a lot of automation. I’m going to remove the touchpoints to make it easier for consumers. I’m going to continue doing that. I want to make it easier so that we can just become embedded finance, so you can pick a retailer of choice where they have a widget on their page that you click.

I want to expand into different verticals, whether it’s student, personal, or credit card loans, and really become a full-service provider for all of our lending partners so we can become a one-stop shop for all financial needs.

Understood. Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you would like to mention?

We’re just entering the new year, and the talk is all about Fed rates. The hot topic right now is whether it is still okay to refinance even with the Feds not lowering the rates yet. The answer is yes. I would encourage folks not to wait. There’s still a lot of money to be lent out there. A lot of people are still looking for opportunities to help folks out. So, there’s still a lot of opportunity to help your personal finances without waiting for the Feds to lower rates. So, don’t hesitate.