Summary

Brian Hoffman started Nomad Credit to primarily work with international students in helping them find and secure student loans, car loans, health insurance, and more. What many don’t realize is how difficult it is to secure credit in the United States if you don’t already have U.S.-based products, many of which you don’t even have access to until you physically move to the country. Brian’s company provides a matching service based on the unique needs of his customers. For example, if you are in India looking to secure a student loan, Nomad helps you narrow down your options and find the best choice. As his business grows, he looks to expand in other countries, both with schools and lending partners.

Show Notes

How can Nomad Credit help an international student navigate the complex credit system in the United States?

Our guest today is Brian Hoffman, founder and CEO of Nomad Credit. Brian earned his bachelors in finance from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in 2012. He began his full-time professional career in trading for about two years and then became an analyst for a company dedicated to helping clients optimize the value of data assets. In late 2015 he founded Nomad Credit, a financial marketplace for those underserved by other marketplaces, specifically non-permanent U.S. residents.

Let’s start with the basics. What is Nomad Credit? What services and/or products does it provide? [2:22]

It’s a platform for international students to help them obtain credit, find insurance products, etc. We don’t provide the loans, but we connect them to partners of ours who do. We also help them with some admissions questions.

How did you come up with the idea behind Nomad? What’s the back story? [3:01]

We wanted to get into traditional student lending like SoFi, but realized we needed to have a competitive advantage or niche to compete, so we decided to transition away from traditional student lending to this niche business. What we realized is that someone coming to the U.S. for the first time needs all the credit products – student loans, credit cards, car loans, insurance, and we decided to go that route.

What’s been your biggest challenge in launching Nomad? [4:30]

There are two. The first is cultural – there are different ways of doing business with lenders in other parts of the world. The second is technology, both for consumers who have never seen an online loan application, and also for lending partners who have never put their loan application online.

What is the biggest or most distinctive benefit of getting a loan through Nomad as opposed to just searching the internet or getting one in their home country? [6:49]

For a long time that’s how students got loans – in their home countries. What people don’t realize is that interest rates are often drastically higher in other parts of the world. In India, for example, student loans are going out at 12-13%, and in the U.S. students can get interest rates in the 4-8% range. Also, if you get a loan in India, it has to be transferred, and there are big FX fees on that, so with a loan from here you don’t have those fees as well, so it tends to be much more cost effective to get the loan here.

What are some of the challenges faced by international students when they try to get student loans?