Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson is the personal finance expert responsible for the editorial content on Lendable Marketplace — the loan guides, the lender reviews, and the explanations of how South African credit regulation affects what you actually pay. The site is operated by Sterk Digital Limited.

Editorial responsibility here is narrower and more concrete than a general "finance expert" claim, so it's worth being precise about what it covers. Every loan amount, term, rate and registration number published on this site is taken directly from the relevant provider's own published information — never estimated, averaged, or rounded in a lender's favour. Where a provider doesn't publish something, the page says so explicitly instead of filling the gap with a plausible-sounding figure. That applies to rates in particular: several providers on the panel publish no headline rate at all, and those pages say exactly that.

The same standard applies to the regulatory content. The statutory fee caps quoted across the site — the initiation fee formula, the monthly service fee, the 5%-per-month short-term interest cap and the repo-linked cap on larger unsecured credit — are checked against the National Credit Act regulations rather than repeated from other comparison sites, which frequently carry outdated figures. Where a number moves with the Reserve Bank's repo rate, it's flagged as needing rechecking after each Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

Most of what goes wrong on comparison sites isn't invention, it's decay — a rate cap that was right two years ago, quietly left in place. Two categories of figure on this site move, and both are tracked deliberately. Provider terms change without notice, so amounts, terms and rates are treated as accurate at the date shown rather than guaranteed, and every page tells you to confirm against the pre-agreement quotation before signing.

The statutory figures move too. The cap on larger unsecured credit is tied to the Reserve Bank's repo rate, so it changes whenever the Monetary Policy Committee moves — that figure is rechecked after each meeting rather than left to drift. The short-term caps and the initiation and service fee formulas change only when the regulations themselves are amended, but they're re-verified against the regulations rather than carried forward on trust.

A representative sample of the editorial content on this site, covering both South African credit regulation and the practical mechanics of borrowing:

• What Is the NCR? — What the NCR does, how to use it to check a lender is legitimate, and how to lodge a complaint.
• What Does "Blacklisted" Mean? — There’s no single blacklist — here’s how credit bureau listings actually work, and how to check yours for free.
• How to Improve Your Credit Score — Practical, realistic steps to rebuild your credit profile over time.
• The In Duplum Rule Explained — The legal rule that caps how much interest can pile up on a debt you’ve defaulted on.
• Missed a Loan Repayment? Here’s What Happens — What a registered lender can and can’t do, what it costs you, and what to do next.
• Instant Cash Loans: Documents, Timing & Legitimacy — What "instant" actually means, which documents you really need, and how to tell a legitimate fast loan from a scam.
• Loans With a Low Credit Score — How South African lenders actually use your credit history, which of our lenders don’t auto-exclude overdue debt, and how to avoid predatory lenders.
• Secured vs Unsecured Loans — The practical difference, and why every lender on our panel offers unsecured credit only.

The full set is on the guides index, and every provider on the panel has an individual write-up underlender reviews.