GyanDhan launches a group buying plan for foreign education loans

By Leandra Monteiro

GyanDhan, an India education financing marketplace, has launched its student loan negotiation plan- GyanDhan Allied. GyanDhan Allied allows students going to pursue postgraduate courses abroad to use collective bargaining to attract banks to compete for their loans and offer lower interest rates.

GyanDhan Allied gathers large groups of students who need abroad education loans without collateral and negotiates with lenders to get the lowest interest rates. When students get organized and act as a group, they have stronger buying power. GyanDhan Allied members get lower rates when they are part of the group than if they were to apply for a loan themselves.

“At GyanDhan, we want to help students get the right loan to finance their education at the right price in the shortest time possible. With our lending partners, we have been working to design the right products. However, pricing has still been a concern due to the lack of risk-based pricing in the industry in general. Students with good profiles and great prospects end up paying rates similar to students with not-so-great employability prospects.

With GyanDhan Allied, we want to bring the power of group buying to the education loan market. We will create cohorts of students based on the risk profiles and work with lenders to get the best possible rates that would not have been possible if they had applied individually. Based on a limited pilot we had run earlier this year, we are confident that this will help lower the cost of student loans while improving efficiency,” said Mr. Ankit Mehra, Founder & CEO, GyanDhan.

GyanDhan has started this group buying scheme in August 2021 and has commenced the sign-up process. For students joining colleges in the month of Jan/Feb 2022, the last day to sign-up for GyanDhan Allied is 15th September 2021 and GyanDhan will communicate about the negotiated deals by 30th September 2021.

For students joining colleges in the month of Jul/Aug 2022, the groups will be made in different tranches. The first segment will be closed on 15th December 2021 and the negotiations will be done by 31st December 2021. If a student is looking to apply or is certain of admission to a university in the Fall 2022 session, he/she can join now. Once the time comes, students can compare the negotiated interest rates and choose as per their preference.