East Bridge Funding Announces the Formation of Sunstone Acceptance Company

May 9th, 2013 - Charleston, SC: East Bridge Funding (EAST BRIDGE) has expanded its at-need funeral financing program and is now marketing the program exclusively to the funeral home industry under the name Sunstone Acceptance (Sunstone).  Sunstone provides funeral homes with the ability to offer their families a closed-end, fixed-rate installment loan to pay for funeral expenses at the time of need. The program is non-recourse to the funeral home and is available in all 50 states.

“The funeral industry is a great opportunity for us,” said Daniel O'Connor, Managing Director of East Bridge Funding. “There are not a lot of true at-need financing options out there for funeral homes. Most of the programs we have seen are billing and servicing, or account management programs and the few standard loan programs that do exist are priced for marginal credit or second look financing. While these options are useful to funeral homes, we felt that the industry needed a solution that offers the same type of pricing and terms to both funeral homes and families that you would expect from a major bank finance program. Families will appreciate the security of having an affordable monthly payment on a fixed-rate installment loan and attractive APR, while the funeral home will increase there service offering at a very minimal cost.”

The Sunstone Acceptance financing program can be used by participating funeral homes that have access to the web.  Applications are submitted online and decisions are generated within minutes. The paperwork can be executed in the funeral home or can be sent to the family member electronically for execution via email. “To be effective, we knew the program had to not only offer attractive terms, but also had to be easy to use for both the funeral home and the family,” said Mr. O’Connor. “Our program has also benefitted from having a funding partner who maintains a strong reputation for providing excellent service to debtors. We couldn’t be happier with how this program has developed and are excited to offer it under the Sunstone Acceptance brand”.

East Bridge Funding Announces Direct to Consumer Loan Program

East Bridge Funding (EAST BRIDGE) has partnered with a specialty lending company to launch a direct to consumer finance program. The program provides approved applicants access to an unsecured loan that they can use to make larger purchases (purchases over $5,000). The program is available in all 50 states and takes minutes to apply.

“Because of our influence and recognition in the consumer financing space, we constantly have consumers contacting us directly for loans,” said Daniel O'Connor, Managing Director of East Bridge Funding. “That’s really not what we do. Our focus is installing programs for retailers and service providers so that they can in turn offer financing terms to their customers. However, we always thought it would be great to offer a traditional direct loan service so we could help customers who call us direct. Since our service offering focuses on unsecured lending, we needed a finance partner that could provide a program with attractive terms and rates for unsecured loans and that is just what we found. Customers can apply in minutes and usually have the funds within a week.”

East Bridge Funding sees this as not only an opportunity to help those consumers contacting them direct but also their business clients. Daniel O'Connor explains, “Sometimes, we are approached by businesses who have had difficulty getting approved for consumer finance programs because of underwriting issues related to the product or the business. These businesses can send customers to us for an unsecured loan that can then be used to make the purchase. Using this method, there is no cost to the retailer like there is with most consumer financing programs or credit card transactions.”